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HAND-BOOK 



FOR 



STEAM ENGINEERS 



AND 



OWNERS OF 



STEAM ENGINES, 



BEING 



A Practical Guide to the Selection and Care of Steam 
Machinery. 






by ^ 
WILLIAM M. BARR. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND.: 

J. H. KERRICK k CO. 

1880. 



i 3_ni 



- p . 



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COPYRIGHT BY 

WILLIAM M. BARK. 

1880. 



INDIANAPOLIS MECHANICAL JOURNAL PRINT. 




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KLECTKOTYPED BY 

KETCHUM & WANAMAKER, 
INDIANAPOLIS. IND. 



PEEFACE. 



The preparation of this little book has been undertaken at the 
suggestion of several persons who have presented their views to 
the writer from the various standpoints of the manufacturer, 
dealer, and user of steam machinery, in which it was made to 
appear that a small and convenient hand-book was greatly needed, 
one which would present to those who had no practical knowledge 
of the steam engine a summary of its principles and action ; the 
treatment to be simple and within the easy comprehension of any 
who should have occasion to read it ; that it shall also contain 
some hints in regard to the selection of steam machinery, and 
advice as to its care and management when in use. 

It was with some hesitancy and many misgivings that the book 
was undertaken, because it seemed doubtful whether so large a 
subject could be successfully presented by so small a book ; and 
be of any practical value to the persons for whom it was intended. 

In the presentation of this subject so as to advise the purchaser 
what to buy, and then instruct another how to use it, was beset 
with more difficulties than was anticipated at the beginning ; I 
have endeavored to be faithful to both parties and the reader will 
have to decide for himself as to whether the advice given is the 
best or not. The sharp limitations as to space prevented illustra- 
ted and descriptive articles, which would have added much to the 
appearance and attractiveness of the book. 

The manufacture and use of steam engines for small powers 
has within the limits of a single generation grown into gigantic 
proportions. When it is known that more than half, and per- 
haps three-fourths of these engines are to be managed by men 
who have had no previous experience in the management of 
steam machinery, the educational value of a reliable book of ref- 



IV. PREFACE. 

erenee can hardly be over-estimated. It is useless to say that 
such persons should not be entrusted "with the care and manage- 
ment of steam boilers, it is nevertheless a fact, and a fact likely 
to continue for years to come, from the very nature of the case. 
Recognizing this, several manufacturers in urging the preparation 
of this book, said : " We want a little book that we can afford to 
give each purchaser of an engine and boiler, one which will give 
him hints and suggestions in regard to their proper use." 

This demand comes also from the farmers, a class of men who 
must have engines whether they know how to use them or not. 
These , persons do not want an elaborate treatise on the steam 
engine, but simply a little hand-book which shall furnish a cer- 
tain needed information and nothing else. 

The reason why proportions and details of construction are 
omitted is because the persons for whom this little book is pre- 
pared are not manufacturers nor dealers, but simply users of 
steam machinery. The engine comes into their hands a complete 
working machine ; the end and aim of this book is merely to 
present the leading features of engines and boilers now in the 
market, and to assist the reader in making a suitable selection, 
and then to give some practical hints in regard to the proper care 
and management. 

William M. Bare. 

Indianapolis, Ind., May, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Fuel and Combustion , 7 

II. Heat and Steam 14 

III. Selection of a Boiler 23 

IY. Boiler Appendages and Furnace 31 

V. Care and Management of a Boiler 40 

VI. Boiler Explosions 53 

VII. Selection of an Engine 61 

VIII. Care and Management of an Engine.. 76 

IX. Portable Engines 86 

X. Care and Management of a Locomotive 112 



CHAPTEE I. 



FUEL AND COMBUSTION. 

The engine, boilers, and furnace being erected, the proper start- 
ing point which suggests itself for this little hand book is fuel. 

We have in this country wood, peat, lignite, bituminous, semi- 
bituminous and anthracite coals available as fuel. Perhaps the 
most abundant and lowest in price of the fuels named is bitu- 
minous coal. It is found in nearly every state in the union and is 
especially plentiful and cheap in the Western and some of the 
Southern States. 

East of the Allegheny mountains anthracite coal is to be had in 
abundance and is a very desirable fuel. It is very nearly pure 
carbon, yields an intense heat, and burns without smoke. It is the 
chief fuel of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ehode Island. 

In other localities the forests still furnish an abundance of cheap 
fuel, and the furnaces are arranged with reference to its use. 

Combustion, as generally understood by steam engineers 
means the rapid combination of the carbon and hydrogen of the 
fuel with the oxygen of the atmosphere, for the purpose of gene- 
rating heat. 

The active agents in the generation of heat from fuel are mainly 
the union of the carbon and hydrogen in the fuel, with the oxygen 
of the atmosphere. How heat is produced by this combination is 
not certainly known, and has been largely speculated upon by 
specialists. Professor Tyndali says "all cases of combustion are to 
be ascribed to the collision of atoms which have been urged 
together by their mutual attractions." That is, the atoms of carbon 
and oxygen under certain conditions have such an affinity for 



8 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

each other that they rush together with such violence that they 
produce heat and light by collision, just as a flint and steel produce 
light and heat by collision. This is the accepted theory, but why 
it is so, or how to account for it we do not know, but we do know 
something of the conditions necessary to combustion. 

It is known that carbon and oxygen, or hydrogen and oxygen, 
will remain together as a mixture at ordinary temperatures almost 
any length of time without entering into that condition we call 
ignition and combustion. The ordinary coal gas used in our 
houses is a hydro-carbon gas, that is, a gas composed of hydrogen 
with carbon entering into its composition. If the cock to a burner 
be opened the gas will escape, but the only effect discovered will 
be a disagreeable smell ; if however, a lighted match be introduced 
into this jet of escaping gas, ignition and combustion immediately 
follow. From this simple experiment we know that one of the 
conditions necessary to combustion is that the two gases, the one 
escaping from the gas burner, and the oxygen of the atmosphere, 
must be raised to a certain temperature. Nor is this all, this tem- 
perature must be continued or combustion will cease. This same 
principle applies to the furnace, or a stove, or any other place 
where combustion is to be effected ; once ignition has taken place 
and combustion begun, it may be continued so long as the condi- 
tions are favorable for it. 

The union of these gases, carbon and oxygen, and hydrogen and 
oxygen, occurs in certain fixed proportions. Carbon will unite 
with oxygen in the formation of two separate compounds known, 
as carbonic oxide (C 0) and carbonic acid (C O 2) as follows: 

Parts by weight. 
Carbon. Oxygen. 

Carbonic Oxide (C 0) 12. lfi 

Carbonic Acid (C O2) 12 32 

The latter is the product of perfect, the former of imperfect 
combustion. 

Hydrogen, when similarly burned, unites with oxygen in 
the proportion of one part of hydrogen to eight parts of oxygen, 
by weight, and forms water, (H 2 0), 

The heating powers of carbon and hydrogen may be expressed 
thus: — 



FUEL AND COMBUSTION. 9 

One pound of carbon such as pure charcoal or coke will liberate 
by combustion, say 14,500 heat units, if the product of combustion 
be carbonic acid gas, or— 

One pound of carbon such as pure charcoal or coke will liberate 
by combustion, say 4,500 heat units, if the product of combustion 
be carbonic oxide gas. 

It will be seen that there is a difference of 10,000 heat units in a 
total of 14,500 whether the carbon be burned to carbonic acid or 
carbonic oxide gas, and illustrates the difference between partial 
and complete combustion. 

One pound of gaseous hydrogen similarly burned would yield, 
say 62,000 heat units; when the hydrogen is to be distilled from 
the coal in the furnace it is somewhat less as a certain amount of 
heat is required to liberate it from the fuel. 

Practically, the question is a commercial rather than a theoreti- 
cal one ; the fuel which the immediate locality supplies is the one 
to be used ; sometimes it is a question whether anthracite or 
bituminous coals shall have the preference when both are com- 
peting in the same market. 

The construction of the furnace and other considerations will 
generally determine which is to be used. As a general practice 
the grates are placed lower in the furnace for bituminous than for 
anthracite coal, the latter being about 18 inches, the former 24 to 
30 inches. When a boiler furnace is constructed for anthracite 
coal it is perhaps better to continue its use unless the difference 
in price is such that it will pay to take out the old front and put 
in a new one. 

There is not much difference between the heating power of 
the best bituminous and anthracite coals when taken at equal 
weights. 

Whether wood or coal shall he used as a fuel in generating 
steam will depend upon the relative cost and heating power of 
each. In order to determine this it will be necessary to know 
among other things what there is in each of the fuels offered 
from which heat may be generated ; and then how much of these 
combustible elements are contained in each of the two. 

In the analysis of wood we find the following substances, and in 



10 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

average composition the figures given are near enough correct for 
our present purpose : 

Per cent. 
Carbon 49.70 

Hydrogen 6.06 

Oxygen 41.30 

Nitrogen 1.05 

Ash (difference) 1.39 



100.00 

Of the above only the carbon and hydrogen are combustible, 
that is, these two elements unite with oxygen and result in a dis- 
engagement of heat, the total quantity of which may easily be 
approximated in some such way as this: 

One pound of pure carbon, such as charcoal or coke when per- 
fectly burned, will raise the temperature of 14,500 pounds of water 
one degree Fahrenheit, from 39° to 40°. One pound of hydrogen 
when similarly burned will raise the temperature of 62,000 pounds 
of water in the same amount ; thus it will be seen that the heating 
power of hydrogen is more than four times as much as carbon. 

The next element in the table is oxygen ; this is a supporter of 
combustion, and in order to get it into the fire we arrange open- 
ings in the grate bars for air to pass through, and thus allow the 
oxygen in the air to combine w T ith the carbon or hydrogen in the 
fuel, and in this way heat is generated, as we usually express it. 
The presence of oxygen in any fuel to beburnad is a bad thing, 
because it lowers the heat producing power of the fuel and it does 
it in this way : "When oxygen and hydrogen are present in the 
same fuel they unite to form water. Oxygen unites with one- 
eighth of its own weight of hydrogen to form water; thus J of 41.3 
equals 5.16 per cent, of hydrogen rendered useless in the fuel 
because of the presence of oxygen in it at the same time. 

For the theoretical heating power of the wood we take all the 
carbon 49.70 per cent, and only 0.90 per cent, of hydrogen (6.06 — 
5.16=0.90.) 

To get the heating power of one pound of wood we have, there- 
fore, Heat 

lbs. nnitH. 
Carbon 497 X 14,500=7,207 

Hydrogen 609 x 62,000=^ 553 

Total heat units in one pound of wood 7,765 

This does not take into account the loss of heat occasioned by 



FUEL AND COMBUSTION. 11 

the presence of 1.05 percent, of nitrogen, which is not a supporter 
of combustion, but which is heated to the same temperature as 
the other gases in the fire. 

It should be understood that the above total number of heat 
units in one pound of wood is for wood perfectly dry and specially 
prepared for analysis. Ordinary wood not dry, will contain about 
one-third of its weight of water. To evaporate this requires an 
expenditure of a portion of the heat already generated in the 
furnace. In addition to this there is more air admitted to the 
furnace than is needed for combustion by nearly one hundred per 
cent. This has the effect to lower the temperature ; so that, 
taking into account the losses incident to burning wood, we have 
scarcely more than 5,500 heat units as actually available in the 
combustion of one pound of wood. 

In estimating the heating power of bituminous coal, a proxi- 
mate analysis is made to ascertain the amount of water present in 
the sample ; this is done by evaporation ; then, to ascertain what 
quantity of volatile combustible matter it contains ; and lastly the 
quantity of coke. The latter also includes all the earthy matter 
known as ash. Excluding the ash from the coke gives the fixed 
carbon. An average analysis of bituminous coal will not vary 
much from the following: 

Per cent. 

Fixed Carbon 55 

Volatile combustible matter 30 

Moisture 10 

Incombustible matter 5 

100 

Proceeding in the same manner in which we ascertain the 
theoretical heating power of the wood, we have then in one pound 
of coal : 

Heat 
lbs. units. 

Carbon 55 x 14,500= 7,975 

Volatile combustible matter 30 x 20, 1 15=6,035 

Less the moisture 10 x 3,600«= 360 

5,675 

Total heat units in one pound of coal 13,650 

In the above calculation the moisture has been deducted and 
the heat units of the volatile combustible matter given as ascer- 



12 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

tained by calorimeter tests; we then have 13,650 — 7,766=4,885 
more heat units in one pound of bituminous coal than in the wood. 
If we take into account the various losses incident to burning 
this pound of coal, excluding the moisture, as this loss is already 
taken into account, we shall have not far from 13,000 effective units 
of heat. Then 

Heat units. 

One pound of coal equals 13,000 

- One pound of wood equals 5,500 

Difference in favor of coal 6,500 

To put it in another shape, one pound of coal is equal to 2.36 
pounds of wood. 

When good bituminous coal is used under a boiler with chim- 
ney draft, the combustion being complete and no great excess of 
air admitted to the furnace, it ought to evaporote ten pounds of 
water per pound of coal, good wood will evaporate about five 
pounds. There is not much difference in the heating power of 
the several kinds of wood when equally dry and taken pound for 
pound. If we take 2240 pounds per ton, then : 

One ton in weight equals 1.2 cords White Pine. 

" " " 97 " Spruce. 

" " " 66 " South'nPine. 

41 77 " Maple (hard) 

" " " 68 " EedOak. 

** " M 54 " Hickory. 

It is customary in evaporative tests to fix the heating power of 
good dry wood at 0.4, that of good coal. Assuming this, we have 
then : 

Onecord White Pine equals 747 pounds of coal. 

M Spruce M 930 

44 Southern Pine 4i 1,350 

44 Maple (hard) M .-.1,150 

Bed Oak " 1,300 

Hickory " 1,640 

To fix a commercial value on coal and wood based on what has 
already been given, and taking $1.00 as the basis of calculation as 
the value of a ton of coal, we shall have : 

^0.33 per cord of White Pine. 

0.41 " Spruce. 

0.41 '* Southern Pine. 

0.51 " Hani Maple. 

0.58 ." Red Oak. 

0.75 M Hickory. 



FUEL AND COMBUSTION. 13 

The use of the above table is too obvious to need much of an 
explanation ; if good coal is worth $4.75 per ton. the relative price 
for hard maple would be $.75x51=$2.42 per cord, or $4.75x60= 
$2.85 per cord for southern pine, and in this manner for any other 
wood given in the table. 

Whatever kind of fuel may be selected for regular use, its 
nature will have to be studied and the fire regulated accordingly. 
Some kinds of coal will not stand urging as much as others, on 
account of its forming a clinker which is not only difficult to 
remove from the grates, but acts as a hindrance to a free and per- 
fect admission of air to the burning fuel. Coal of this kind should 
be spread over as large a grate area as possible, that the combus- 
tion be slow. Coals which burn to a red ash are, more, likely to 
yield a clinker in an intense fire than coals burning to a light 
brown or white ash. 



CHAP. II. 



HEAT AND STEAM. 

The steam engine is a machine for the conversion of heat into 
power in motion. The heat is generated by the combustion of 
fuel ; the transmission is accomplished through the agency of 
steam ; the power is made available and brought under control by 
means of the engine. 

The effect of heat upon water is to vaporize it, if there be 
intensity enough, the heat will under proper conditions cause 
water to boil ; the vapor produced by boiling is called steam, and 
steam under pressure is a product which is the end and aim of 
that portion of the steam engine known as the boiler and furnace. 

The steam engine then is to be considered as a form of heat 
engine ; of which the furnace, boiler, and the engine itself are to 
be regarded as separate portions of the same mechanism. 

The conditions demanded upon economic grounds to secure 
the highest efficiency in the steam engine are : 

1. A proper construction of the furnace so as to secure the 

perfect combustion of fuel. 

2. The heat generated in the furnace must be transferred to the 

water in the boiler without loss. 

3. The circulation in the boiler must be so complete that the 

heat from the furnace may be quickly and thoroughly 
diffused throughout the whole body of water. 

4. The construction of an engine that w T ill use the steam with- 

out loss of heat, except so much as may be necessary to 
perform work required of the engine. 

5. The recovery of heat from exhaust steam. 

6. The absence of friction and back pressure in the working of 

the engine. 



LOSS BY BAD FIRING. 15 

It is superfluous to say that these conditions are not fulfilled in 
any engine of the present day. At best the combustion of fuel 
is only approximately perfect, the losses being due to several 
causes among which are, — unburned fuel falling through the 
spaces in the grates and mingling with the ashes. This, with 
some kinds of coal, and improper firing, amounts to a large per- 
centage of the furnace waste. 

It is not possible w r ith any present method of setting boilers to 
transfer all the heat of the furnace to the water in the boiler ; nor 
can there be for the reason that, the temperature of the escaping 
gases must not be lower than that of the steam in the boilers, or 
direct loss will result in the radiation of heat from the tubes or 
flues in the boiler, by thus reheating the gases to the steam tem- 
perature. 

If the steam pressure is 80 lbs. per square inch above the 
atmosphere, the corresponding temperature due to this pressure is 
324° Fahr. The temperature of the escaping gases ought not, 
therefore, to be less than 350° Fahr. where they leave the boiler 
flues or tubes to pass off into the chimney. 

If the temperature of the furnace be taken at 2000° Fahr. and 
the escaping gases at 400° Fahr. it w T ill be seen that one-fifth of 
the heat generated in the furnace is passing off without perform- 
ing work. This is a very great loss, and these figures understate 
rather than correctly give the loss from this one source. 
. Efforts have been made to utilize the temperature of these 
waste gases by making them heat feed water by means of coils, or 
by that particular disposition of pipes and connections known a& 
an economizer. Others have turned it into account by making it 
heat the air supplied the fuel on the grates. Any heat so re- 
claimed is money saved, provided it does not cost more to get it 
than it is worth in coal to generate a similar quantity of heat. It 
is doubtful whether the loss in this particular direction can be 
brought below 20 per cent, of the fuel burned, at least, by any 
method of saving now known. : • 

The loss by bad firing and by a bad construction of furnace is 
often a large one. It has been demonstrated experimentally that ' 
20 to 30 per cent of fuel can be saved by a proper construction and 



16 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

operating of the furnace. The direct causes of loss are, too low 
temperature of furnace for properly burning fuels, especially such 
as are rich in hydro-carbon gases; or, by the admission of too 
much cold air over or back of the tire ; or by the admission of 
too little air under the lire so that carbonic oxide gas is generated 
instead of carbonic acid gas, the former being a product of incom- 
plete, the latter the product of complete combustion. 

The relative heating powers of fuel burned, resulting in the pro- 
duction of either of these two gases being as follows : 

Heat units. 

1 pound of carbon burned to carbonic acid 14,500 

1 pound of carbon burned to carbonic oxide 4,500 

Units of heat lost by burning to carbonic oxide 10,000 

It will be seen that here is an enormous source of loss and all 
that is required to prevent it is a proper construction of furnace. 

Smoke is a nuisance which ought to be prohibited by stringent 
legislation. 

There is no good reason for its polluting presence in the atmos- 
phere, defiling everything with which it comes in contact. Smoke 
regarded as a source of direct loss is greatly overestimated, the fact 
is, the actual amount of coal lost to produce smoke is very trifling. 

The presence of smoke indicates a low temperature of furnace or 
combustion chamber ; if the temperature were sufficiently high 
and the furnace, properly constructed, smoke could not be gene- 
rated. The prevention of smoke is easily accomplished, and with 
it a more economical combustion of hydro carbon fuels. 

Radiation. — A considerable loss of heat occurs by radiation from 
the furnace walls ; this may be prevented in part by making the 
walls hollow with an air space between. If a force blast is used 
the air may be admitted at the back end of the boiler-setting and 
by passing through between the walls will become heated and if 
conveyed into the ash pit at a high temperature will greatly assist 
combustion and thus tend to a higher economy. 

Air required.— In regard to the quantity of air required, it will 
vary somewhat with the fuel used, but in general 12 pounds of 



MEASUREMENT CF HEAT. 17 

air are sufficient to completely burn one pound of coal ; practically 
however, 15 to 25 pounds are furnished, being largely in excess of 
that which the lire can use, and must pass off with the gases as a 
w T aste product. 

This surplus air enters cold and leaves the furnace heated to the 
same temperature as that of the legitimate and proper products of 
combustion, and thus directly operates to the lowering of the fur- 
nace temperature. 

Measurement of Heat. — A heat unit is that quantity of heat 
necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water one 
degree, from 39° to 40° Fahr., this being the temperature of the 
greatest density of water. A thermal unit, heat unit, or unit of 
heat, all mean the same thing. 

Experiments have been made to determine the mechanical 
equivalent of a heat unit, and it is found to be equal to 772 pounds 
raised one foot high. This is sometimes called "Joule's equiva- 
lent," after Dr. Joule of England, it is also known as the dynamic 
value of a heat unit. 

Knowing the number of heat units in a pound of coal qnables us 
to calculate the amount of work it should perform. Let us sup- 
pose a pound of coal to be burned to carbonic acid gas and to 
<levelope during its combustion 14,000 heat units, then: — 

14,000x772=11,008,000 foot pounds. 

That is to say: if one pound of coal were burned under the 
above conditions it would have a capacity for doing work repre- 
sented by the lifting of eleven millions of pounds one foot high 
against the action of gravity. Suppose this to be done in one hour 
then w r e should expect to get from one pound of coal an equivalent 
of 5.56 H. P. It is well known that only a very small fraction of 
such equivalent is secured in the very best modern practice. The 
question is where does this heat go, and why is it so small a por- 
tion of it is actually utilized? 

The losses may be accounted for in several ways and perhaps as 
Allows : 

The heat wasted iu the chimney 25 ]>er cent. 

Through bad firing If. 

Heat accounted for by the engine (not indicated) lft ki 

Heat lost by exhaust steam 55 

100 

—2 



18 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

This is about 2 pounds of coal per hour per indicated horse 
power, which is regarded as a very high attainment and is seldom 
reached in ordinary cut off engines. 

It requires good coal, good firing, and an economical engine to 
get an indicated horse power from two pounds of coal burned per 
hour. As coal varies in quality it is a better plan to deduct the 
ashes and other incombustible matter and take the net combustible 
as a basis of comparison. 

The best coal when properly burned is capable of evaporating 
15 pounds of water from and at a temperature of 212° Fahr. The 
common evaporation is about half that amount, and with the best 
improved furnaces, and careful management it is seldom that 10 
pounds of water is exceeded and is to be regarded as a high rate 
of evaporation. In experimental tests 12 pounds have been 
reported, but it is doubtful whether there is any steam boiler and 
furnace which is constantly yielding any such results. 

Circulation of water in a boiler is a very important feature to 
secure the highest evaporative results. Other things being equal 
the boiler which affords the best circulation of water will be found 
to be the most economical in service. Circulation is greatly 
hindered in some boilers by having too many tubes ; in others, by 
introducing in the water space of the boiler too many stays and 
making the water spaces too narrow. 

To secure the highest economy there must be thorough circula- 
tion from below upwards, in the boiler. There is no doubt that a 
great deal of heat is lost because the construction is such as to 
hinder a free flow of water around the tubes and sides of the 
boiler. 

The construction of an engine that will use steam without loss 

of heat, except so much as may be necessary to perform work 
required of it, is a physical impossibility. Among the sources of 
loss in an engine are : — radiation, condensation of steam in un jack- 
eted cylinders, and the enormous loss of heat occasioned by 
exhausting the steam into the atmosphere. 

Radiation is usually classed among the minor losses in a steam 
engine. There is a considerable loss of heat caused by radiation 



COVERING BOILERS AND PIPES. 19 

from steam boilers and pipes exposed to the atmosphere, and not 
protected by a suitable covering. 

Much of this heat may be saved by employing a non-conducting 
material as a covering which, though not preventing all radiation, 
will save enough heat to make its application economical. It is 
well known that some bodies conduct and radiate heat less rapidly 
than others, but it must not be understood that the absolute value 
of such a covering is inversely proportioned to the conducting 
power of the material employed, because in its application the 
outer surface is enlarged and the radiation will be going on less 
actively at any given point, but the enlarged surface exposed 
reduces somewhat the apparent gain. 

Covering Boilers and Pipes. — Locomotive boilers have a casing 
of wood around the boilers and covered with sheet iron, this 
makes a very good and low priced covering, and is also well 
adapted to portable engines. 

Owing to the competition and consequent low price at which the 
latter engines are offered they are seldom covered in this way. 

Stationery boilers generally have the side walls carried up to a 
height of a few inches above the top of the boiler and this space is 
filled in with dry ashes. There are now in the market several 
proprietary articles which have been found quite efficient in pre- 
venting loss by radiation, among these are air space coverings, 
asbestos, and others of which the composition is not made known. 

Steam Jackets. — This term is commonly used to designate a 
steam tight casing around an engine cylinder, and which it is 
intended shall be kept filled with steam, that the inner cylinder 
shall be maintained at a temperature equal to or higher than that 
of the steam before expansion begins. The particular object in 
jacketing steam cylinders is to prevent the condensation of steam 
within the cylinder during any portion of the stroke. 

"When steam is admitted into an ordinary cylinder, the tempe- 
rature of the cylinder itself is lower than that of the steam, con- 
sequently the steam gives up to the cylinder so much of its heat 
as may be necessary to equalize the temperature. This occasions 
loss of pressure, which means loss of heat, therefore, the 



20 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

steam has less capacity to do work ; the usual expression for this 
is " waste of energy." If the cylinder is surrounded by a body of 
steam at full boiler pressure, its temperature will be higher than 
that of the inflowing steam and no such condensation will take 
place and there will be nothing within the cylinder but dry 
steam throughout the stroke. Condensation is going on just the 
same however, but it is transferred from the cylinder where the 
pressure is variable, to the steam jacket, where the pressure is 
constant. 

However satisfactory the theory of the steam jacket may be, it 
has not always been satisfactory in its practical workings. No 
doubt much of this is due to defective design, and to incompetent 
handling after erection. It is doubtful whether it is of any special 
advantage in ordinary high pressure engines cutting off not 
earlier than | to \ stroke. When a large engine is working with 
high grades of expansion, say \ or \ cut off, then a steam jacket 
may be of advantage. 

One thing is certain with respect to steam jackets, and that is, 
the water of condensation must not be allowed to collect in the 
jacket, and that is about the only duty devolving upon the 
engineer. If this is not carefully attended to, an efficient steam 
jacket may be made not only inoperative, but result in a greater 
waste through enormous condensation, than would result if the 
engine had no jacket at all. 

It must not be supposed that the benefits occurring or likely to 
occur from the use of a steam jacket are confined to large engines ; 
the reason why they are seldom applied to small engines is on 
account of the increased cost of manufacture, and the change 
required? in the patterns for cylinders to be so fitted. 

Condensation in Steam Cylinders. — This is a source of waste in 
all steam engines in which no special provision has been made to 
prevent it. The two methods usually employed in its prevention 
are either superheating the steam, or by the use of a steam jacket 
around the cylinder. 

To entirely prevent condensation would require that the 
cylinder and piston be made of a non-conducting and a non- 
absorbing material, this would prevent any waste of fuel by con- 



SUPERHEATED STEAM. 21 

duction and radiation. Condensation occurs through another 
cause, and which cannot be thus remedied ; that is, the condensa- 
tion of steam due to the performance of work in the cylinders, 
but this can hardly be reckoned as a loss or waste of fuel. 

So far as choice of material for a steam cylinder goes, we are 
practically confined to cast-iron, which is a good conducting mate- 
rial and absorbs heat rapidly during the first part of the stroke 
and as the temperature falls within the cylinder gives it out 
rapidly during the latter part of the stroke, if it is a cut-off engine 
or one in which the steam is used expansively ; the loss continu- 
ing during the whole of the return stroke of the piston, and which 
reaches the maximum if the engine be a condensing one ; the loss 
of heat being less if the steam be exhausted into the atmosphere 
w T ith the usual two or three pounds back pressure. 

The use of superheated steam has not been employed in high 
pressure steam engines, except in rare instances and under circum- 
stances which cannot ordinarily be trusted, or safely confided to 
the care of an ordinary workmen. 

The objections to a steam superheating apparatus are princi- 
pally the excessive wear and tear to which it is subjected and 
which makes it very expensive to operate, together with the 
danger of accident likely to result by having a high steam pressure 
within an over-heated pipe or chamber, and the mischief the 
steam itself is likely to occasion the valves and piston by destroy- 
ing the lubricating qualities of the oil between the wearing 
surfaces. 

Exhaust Steam. — The recovery of heat from exhaust steam, 
and its utilization without interfering with the performance of the 
engine, is as yet an unsolved problem. In a non-condensing 
engine more than half the heat generated by the combustion of 
fuel in the furnace is carried aw T ay in the exhaust steam as it 
escapes into the atmosphere. The reduction of pressure during 
the entire stroke of the piston is favorable to the abstraction of 
heat from the cylinder during the period of exhaust, and results 
in greater or less loss of heat, depending on the time occupied. 



22 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

This may be lessened somewhat by the early closing of the 
exhaust valve and thus compressing the steam up to, as near as 
possible, the pressure in the steam chest. A high piston speed 
and rapid rate of revolution will very materiallv contribute to 
economy of heat by lessening the quantity abstracted by the 
exhaust. 



CHAP. III. 



SELECTION OF A BOILER. 

The selection of a boiler for a particular service will naturally 
suggest the following questions : — 

1. What kind of a boiler shall it be ? 

2. Of what material shall it be made ? 

3. What size shall it be in order to furnish a certain power? 
In reply to the first question it is to be expected there will 

be wide differences of opinion varying with the locality, usage, and 
service for which it is intended. 

One of the first things to be taken into account in the selection 
of a boiler is the quality of water to be used in it for generating 
steam. If the water is pure, then it makes little difference what 
kind of boiler be selected so far as incrustation affects selection. 
If the water is hard and will deposit scale upon evaporation then 
a boiler should be selected w T hich w r ill admit of thorough inspec- 
tion and removal of any deposit formed within it. 

For hard water, the ordinary two flue boiler will be found a 
good one, as it is favorable to a thorough circulation of water, and 
permits easy access to all parts of it for examination and cleaning. 
It docs not, however, present the extent of heating surface for a 
given space that tubular boilers offer ; but with hard water the 
boiler is quite as economical if kept in good condition. 

The difficulty with tubular boilers when used in connection 
with hard water is that the tubes will in a short time become 
coated w r ith scale; this prevents the transmission of heat not 
only, but impairs the circulation of the water around them. Both 
of these are opposed to economy in the fact that it requires more 



24 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

coal to generate a given weight of steam in the first case ; and 
second by reason of deficient circulation, the plates over the fire 
are likely to become overheated and burnt and so become danger- 
ous ; thus directly contributing to accident or disaster. 

The matter of circulation in boilers is one which should have 
careful attention in making a selection. There is little trouble in 
this regard with any of the ordinary types of boilers so long as 
they are clean and new, and properly proportioned. Nor is there 
likely to be .any difficulty thereafter if the water is soft and clean. 
Circulation is often seriously impaired by putting in too many 
tubes in a boiler, the effect of which is to so fill up the space that 
the heated particles of water forcing their way upwards from below 
meet with so much resistance that they can hardly overcome it, 
and the result is that a boiler does not furnish from one-fourth to- 
one-half as much steam for a given weight of fuel as it should,, 
from this very cause. 

Boilers intended for use in distant localities where the facilities- 
for repairs are meager or entirely wanting, and fuel low priced, 
should be of the simplest description. Cylinder boilers or two 
flue boilers will perhaps be found most suitable. These are 
largely used by coal miners, blast furnaces, saw mills, and other 
branches of industry which must of necessity be removed from 
the larger towns and engineering work shops. 

In selecting a boiler for a planing mill or any other place in 
which the fuel is of similar description and the firing irregular, 
there should be large water capacity in the boiler that it may act 
as a reservoir of power in much the same way that a fly wheel acts 
as a regulator for a steam engine. It is a common notion among 
wood-workers that firing with shavings or light fuel is "' easy on 
the boiler." There is abundant reason to doubt this. The sud- 
denness and the rapidity with which an intense fire is kindled in 
the furnace, filling all the furnace space and the tubes with flame, 
and with an intense heat which envelopes all within the limits of 
draft opening, continuing thus for a few minutes only, and as 
suddenly going out, can hardly be regarded as the ideal furnace. 
Yet there are thousands of just such furnaces at work, and it is 



HORIZONTAL TUBULAR BOILERS. 2o 

altogether probable that little or no change will be made in them 
by this class of manufacturers, at least in the near future. 

In regard to the selection of a boiler for this service, we are 
brought back again to the question of hard or soft water. The 
decision should be largely influenced by this, but whatever type of 
boiler is selected there should be a surplus of boiler power of at least 
20 per cent, that is if a 50 horse power boiler is needed to do the 
work, put in one of 60 horse-power, this will prevent the fluctua- 
tions of speed in the engine which are sure to follow a reduction 
of boiler pressure. 

This increase in boiler power ought not to be simply that of tube 
surface, but should also include extra water space. The reserve 
power of a boiler is in the water heated up to a temperature cor- 
responding to the steam pressure, when this pressure is lowered 
the water then gives off steam corresponding to the lower pressure, 
the more water the more steam, and in this w T ay the water in the 
boiler stores up heat when over fired, to give it off again when the 
fire is low, and so acts a regulator of pressure, a thing that extra 

tube surface cannot do. 

• 

This kind of firing is apt to induce priming, and for this reason 
a boiler should be selected having a large water surface. Horizon- 
tal boilers are, in general, to be preferred over vertical ones for 
planing mills because of the larger water surface exposed in pro- 
portion to the heating surface. If a tubular boiler is selected, the 
water line above the tubes should be not higher than two-thirds 
the diameter of the boiler measured from the bottom, and the 
boiler should be made having the upper edge of the top row of 
tubes at least three inches below this, there should also be a clear 
space up through the center of the boiler of sufficient width to 
insure a perfect circulation of water. 

Horizontal tubular boilers are to be recommended when pure 
soft water is used. They combine at once the qualities of great 
strength without excessive bracing, large heating surface, high 
evaporative capacity without liability to priming, and are conven- 
ient of access for external and internal examination when set in 
the furnace. 



26 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Boilers of this class are apt to contain too many tubes, and are 
thus rendered less efficient than if a smaller number were used 
ior the same diameter of shell. 

The tubes should be not less than three inches and are seldom 
more than four inches in diameter, when secured to the heads by 
expanding. The tubes may be three inches for all diameters of 
shell up to 48 inches; for diameters of shell ranging from 44 to 
GO inches, three and a half inch tubes may be used ; and for diam- 
eters of shell from 48 to 72 inches the tubes may be four inches in 
diameter. 

In regard to length, 3 inch tubes may be used up to 12 to 14 ft; 
3£ inch tubes from 12 to 16 feet long, and 4-inch tubes from 14 to 
. 18 feet long. 

The space between the tubes should be at least one-third their 
diameter, and there should be ample space between the nearest 
tube and the shell for circulation of water up the sides of the 
boiler ; a center space should also be allowed in boilers of large 
diameter, say in all boilers over 48 inches in diameter. 

Flue boilers are not regarded as being quite so economical as 
tubular boilers. In a '• competitive test " they would probably be 
" figured out" on the score of economy, yet with all their apparent 
w r ant of economy they are not to be despised ; on the contrary, 
there are circumstances or conditions in which they are to be 
strongly recommended. Chief among the the advantages claimed 
for this style of boiler may be mentioned the fact that it affords 
every possible facility for examination and cleaning. In this 
respect it is second only to the cylinder boiler. 

Boilers of this kind should be fitted with two man heads ; one 
at the back end above and the other at the front end underneath 
the flues. 

The principal danger connected with this kind of a boiler is the 
liability of the flues to collapse, and for this reason the boilers 
should not be made excessively long, nor of very large diameter of 
flues. The commonest diameters for two flue boilers are from 40 
to 44 inches ; the flues are usually one-third the diameter of the 
shell ; the lengths do not as a general thing vary much from six 



SELECTION OF A BOILER. 27 

times the diameter of the shell. These may be taken as fair 
average proportions. 

Five Flue Boilers.— Boilers are also made with several large 
flues, perhaps the five flue boiler is the oftenest met with ; the 
arrangement being that of three large flues above and two smaller 
ones below. This is not a very desirable form of construction, and 
lias little to recommend it over the two flue boiler. 

Instead of a five flue boiler, it is perhaps preferable to take the 
same diameter of shell and insert as many six inch lap-welded 
flues as it will contain allowing three inches water space between 
the flues and the side of the shell. 

Boilers of this kind may be made from 16 to 20 feet long and 
will be found to be a good style of boiler. 

Fire box boilers, or locomotive boilers as they are commonly 
called are best adapted for small powers and with a fuel which 
deposits but little soot in the tubes. This kind of boiler is sup- 
plied with portable or agricultural engines and is very well 
adapted for that particular service. 

In canvassing the desirability of this kind of a boiler for station- 
ary use, we must again refer to the kind of water to be used in it. 
If the water is soft and clean there is then no particular objection 
to a boiler of this construction being used for small powers; if the 
water is hard and will form scale it ought not to be chosen, but a 
flue boiler selected instead. 

Tertical boilers are used in great numbers for small engines, 
heating, etc. They have the merit of being compact and low 
priced. A common defect in the construction of this kind of 
boiler is that too many tubes are put in the head in the fire box, 
thereby preventing a proper circulation of water between them. 
This defect m construction induces priming with all its attendant 
annoyances and dangers. 

This style of boiler is not suited to hard water, but pure soft 
water only. If the water is hard an upright boiler with a single 
flue is better if not safer than the tubular boiler. These boilers 



28 HAND HOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

should be provided with hand holes above the crown sheet and 
around the bottom of the water legs ; at least three at each place 
mentioned. 

Boiler Material. — In regard to the material of which a boiler 
shall be made there is but the simple choice between iron and 
steel. 

If iron should be selected, it should be of a grade not lower than 
C. IT. No. 1, and capable of withstanding a tensile strain of at 
least 40,000 pounds per square inch of section lengthwise of the 
grain of the metal. It should also show a contraction of area at 
the point of fracture of at least twelve per cent. This is the lowest 
grade of iron which should enter into boiler construction. 

It sometimes happens in giving the tensile strength of iron that 
no other facts are given, such as contraction of area, etc. It was 
formerly the practice to break specimens in order to arrive at the 
tensile strength only, but extended observation has shown that 
this alone does not indicate the quality, and that poor irons are 
quite as likely to show a high breaking strain as better ones. It is 
now considered the best practice to take into account both these 
qualities when testing iron boiler plate. 

There are now three kinds of steel in the market — crucible, 
Bessemer, and open hearth steel. On account of the small quan- 
tity made and the high price charged for the first; the little effort 
made to sell the second ; the open hearth steel practically rules 
the market. It has many qualities which admirably fit it for boiler 
construction, and will no doubt always hold a leading place among 
boiler materials. 

Steel for boilers should not be of too high tensile strength ; 
60,000 to 65,000 pounds tensile strength per square inch makes the 
best boilers. If the steel is of too high a grade it will take a tem- 
per and therefore is utterly unfit for use in steam boilers; if the 
steel is of two low tensile strength it is apt to be loose or spongy. 

Among the advantages steel possesses over iron may be men- 
tioned the circumstance that it is a practically homogeneous 
material when properly made and rolled, consequently it is nearly 



BOIl.KK rOWEK. 29 

as strong in one direction as it is in another. In this respect steel 
is superior to iron plate of equal thickness because the latter is 
made up of several pieces of iron welded together and in rolling 
into the plate it becomes fibrous and thus of unequal strength, 
being greatest in the direction of the fiber and least when tested 
across it. 

Boiler Power. — In regard to the size of a boiler it is not easy 
to give "offhand" advice, yet this is a question of great impor- 
tance and one about which the purchaser is more directly con- 
cerned than almost any other, because it affects price. It is no 
economy to buy a boiler too small for the work it has to do in order 
to save something in first cost; neither is it economy to get too 
much boiler power for the work. 

The size required for any particular service will depend largely 
upon its construction, except in the case of small powers, boilers 
are as a general thing either horizontal flue or tubular. For ordi- 
nary slide valve engines it is considered a safe practice to allow 
for: — 

Cylinder Boilers, 9 square feet heating surface per H. P. 

Flue Boilers _ 12 " ki " " " " 

Tubular Boilers 15 " " " " " " 

These proportions vary somewhat in different localities and 
among different builders. If an automatic cut-off engine is to be 
used the boilers may be reduced about one-third from the above 
proportions to furnish the steam for the same indicated horse 
power. 

The horse-power of a boiler is a rating which should never have 
been introduced, as it is the engine and not the boiler which gives 
us power in motion. 

If a boiler is to supply steam to an ordinary slide valve engine it 
will require not far from 60 pounds of water to be evaporated to 
furnish a horse-power ; if this same boiler were to supply the 
steam for an automatic cut-off engine using a moderate high pres- 
sure and working expansively, then 30 pounds of w T ater evaporated 
will be ample for a horse-power; so that for a given boiler, it 
might be a 25 H. P. boiler to one purchaser and a 50 H. P. boiler 



30 HAND BOOK FOK STEAM ENGINEERS. 

to another, depending altogether on the kind of engine it was to be 
used in connection with. Experts in making out their reports of 
experimental tests usually consider an evaporation of 30 pounds of 
water equivalent to one horse-power. 

Boilers ought to be somewhat larger than just sufficient for an 
engine as sudden reductions of pressure in a boiler are likely to 
induce priming, and thus endanger the boiler not only but the 
engine as well. 



CHAP. IV. 

BOILER APPENDAGES AND THE 
FURNACE. 

The common appendages to a steam boiler are a safety valve, 
feed and blow-off pipe, steam pipe, guage cocks, glass water guage 
and steam guage ; to which may be added a steam drum or dome 
and a mud drum. 

There are numerous other devices which are attached to boilers 
such as safety guages, alarms, fusible plugs, automatic dampers, 
etc. ; many of these are very servicable and are well liked by those 
using them. 

Safety Valves should always be large enough to permit the 
escape of all the steam a boiler is capable of making and each 
boiler should have its own safety valve rather than connecting 
two or more boilers together and depending on one valve for the 
whole. 

The valve and seat should be made of hard gun metal or any 
other composition that will not rust and stick fast. At one time 
it was quite a common thing to see a brass valve fitted to a cast 
iron seat ; this is wrong for the rusting of the iron would fix. the 
valve so tightly that the boiler w r ould be in constant danger of 
rupture from over pressure. 

For stationary boilers the common ball and lever safety valves 
are generally used ; a hole should be drilled in the end of the lever 
and a cord attached, which can be led over a series of small pul- 
leys to the fire or engine room aiu> thus allow it to be raised 
several times a day. In case it is necessary at any time during 



32 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

working hours, or at noon time, to stop the engine, the safety- 
valve should be raised from its seat to be sure that it is in good 
working order. 

For stationary boilers it is immaterial whether the safety ralve 
be fitted with a lever and weight, or whether it be fitted with a 
spring. The former is the usual manner of loading a safety valve 
and has but few objections. For portable engines and locomotives 
safety valves are loaded with springs which by suitable adjustment 
may be made to blow off at any desired pressure. 

The following rule is that enforced by the U. 8. Government in 
fixing the area of safety valves for ocean and river service, when 
the ordinary lever and weight safety valve is employed : 

Rule. — When the common safety valve is employed it shall 
have an area of not less than one square inch for each two feet 
of grate surface. 

Another rule, ascribed to Professor Thurston, is to multiply the 
pounds of coal burned per iiour by 4 ; this product is to be 
divided by the steam pressure to which a constant number 10 is 
added. 

Example : What would be the proper area for a safety valve for 
a boiler having a grate surface 5 feet square and burning 12 pounds 
of coal per hour per square foot of grate ; the steam pressure 
being 75 pounds per square inch? 

5 x 5=25 square feet of grate. 
25 x 12=300 lbs. of coal per hour. 
300x4=1200. 

75 + 10=85=steam pressure with 10 added, then n ™=14.l] 
incnes are or 4£ inches diameter. 

The feed pipe usually enters the boilers at the rear end, and is 
commonly screwed into a hole tapped into the back head. For 
large boilers or where several boilers are fitted together in one 
battery, flanges are sometimes used, but this is the exception 
rather than the rule. 

A feed pipe should be at least twice the area over that which is 
regarded as simply necessary to supply the boiler with water, as 






BOILER APPENDAGES AND THE FURNACE. 33 

sediment or scale is likely to form in it which will materially 
reduce its area. 

In localities where the water is hard the feed pipes should be 
disconnected near the boiler and examined occasionally to ascer- 
tain whether or not scale is forming in them. 

In general, the sizes of feed pipes leading from the pump to the 
boiler are fixed by the size of tap used by the maker of the 
pump. It is not well to reduce the diameter of the pipe, and the 
size should be the same throughout. Care should be exercised in 
putting pipes in place that no strain be brought upon them by 
imperfect fitting as it is certain to lead to leaky joints at some time 
or another. It is also desirable that the pipes be as short and 
straight as possible. Feed pipes should never be placed under 
ground if it is possible to make any different disposition of them. 
In locating pipes it is desirable to arrange for the expansion of the 
boiler as w r ell as for that of the pipes themselves. 

In selecting a pump it should have a much larger capacity than 
that needed to supply the boiler as there are many things which 
affect the working of a pump, such, as defective suction pipes, 
leaky valves, etc. It is the practice of most manufacturers to give 
the capacity of their pumps in gallons of water delivered per min- 
ute from w T hich it is easy to select a suitable size, but the speed 
given in the tables at which the pump is to run is generally faster 
than that w T hich it is desirable to run them. 

As a general thing, and without referring to any particular 
maker or design, it is a good plan to select a pump having four 
times the capacity actually needed for the boiler, then the speed 
may be reduced to half that given in the table, and will require 
less repairs, and will be a more satisfactory purchase in the long 
run. 

In selecting an injector or inspirator the size should not greatly 
exceed that actually required to supply the boiler. In making the 
steam connections the pipes should start from the steam space 
of the boiler, and should not be branches merely from the other 
steam pipes, neither should the diameters of the pipes be less 

—3 



34 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

than that which the instrument calls for. The pipes should he as 
short and straight as practicable ; abrupt bends should always be 
avoided in the suction pipe. 

If the water is taken from a stream in which there are floating 
particles of wood, leaves, etc., a strainer should be used; a large 
sheet metal box with perforated sides makes a good strainer ; the 
openings ought not to greatly exceed an eighth of an inch in diam- 
eter, and should be several times the area of the suction pipe. 

A Check Valve should be fitted with a cock between it and the 
boiler, so that in the event of its not working satisfactorily it may 
be taken apart, cleaned, and replaced without stopping for exami- 
nation or repairs. 

The Blow-off Pipe should be so arranged that it will entirely 
drain the boiler of water; it is also a good plan to set a boiler with 
a slight inclination toward the blow-off pipe that it may be thor* 
oughly drained; an inclination of two inches in twenty feet 
works well in practice. The blow-off pipe is usually fitted at the 
back end of the boiler. It is a common practice to fit a piece of 
pipe into the back head, and attach a T fitting to it, feeding into 
one branch and using the other for the blow-off. 

The Steam Pipe may be connected at any convenient point on 
the top of the boiler. If the boiler is to furnish steam for an 
engine only, the common practice is to make the diameter of the 
pipe one-fourth that of the cylinder. The steam pipe should be 
as short and straight as possible. If bends are to be introduced in 
steam pipes it is better to have a long curved bend than the abrupt 
right angle fitting usually employed for the purpose. It is also a 
good plan to provide a stop- valve next the boiler to shut off the 
steam and prevent it condensing in the steam' pipe at night, or 
other long stoppages. 

The Gauge Cocks should be not less than three in number, ana 
may be of any of the various kinds now in the market. For sta- 
tionary boilers the Mississippi gauge-cock is, perhaps, as good as 
any. For portable engines a compression gauge-cock is perhaps 
the best. The lower gauge-cock should be at least one inch above 



BOILER APPENDAGES AND THE FURNACE. 35 

the tubes or crown sheet, the middle one at the ordinary water 
line, the upper one at any convenient distance above it, say from 
one to three inches, depending on the size of the boiler. 

A Glass Water Gauge should be provided for each boiler, and 
should be so located that the water level in the boiler when at the 
lower gauge-cock shall then be on a line with the top of the lower 
stuffing box gland. When glass gauges are so fitted the fireman 
can always tell at a glance just how much water he has above the 
flues or crown sheet ; it also permits the easy test of accuracy by 
trying the gauge-cocks with the water at a certain known level. 
Too much dependence must not be placed on the glass water gauge 
alone, but should be used in connection with the gauge-cocks. 

A Steam Gauge is a very important appendage to a steam 
boiler, and should be chosen with special reference to accuracy 
and durability. The two ordinary gauges now in the market are 
the bent tube and the diaphragm gauges. It matters little which 
of the two kinds is selected provided it is a good and first- 
class gauge. A steam gauge should be compared with a standard 
test gauge at least once a year, to see that it is correct. The im- 
portance of this will be fully apparent when it is known that it 
furnishes the only means by which the fireman is to judge of the 
steam pressure in the boiler. A siphon should be attached to 
every gauge, and provision should also be made for draining the 
gauge or siphon to prevent freezing when steam is off the boiler. 
Neglect of this may endanger the accurate reading of the steam 
gauge and render it useless. 

Steam Dome. — This is a reservoir for steam, riveted to the 
upper portion of the shell and communicating, by a central open- 
ing with the steam space in the boiler. AVhen this reservoir 
forms a separate fixture and is attached to the boiler by cast or 
wrought iron nozzles, it is then called a steam drum. The latter 
answers all the purposes for stationary boilers that the former 
does, and is to be preferred because of the smaller opening in the 
shell of the boiler. A considerable number of boiler explosions 



36 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

have been traced directly to the weakness of the shell caused by 
the large opening in and imperfect staying of the shell under- 
neath the dome. When a dome is employed and has a large hole 
underneath, the strength of the shell is impaired in two ways. 1. 
By reducing the longitudinal sectional area of shell through the 
center of. opening cut for it, which weakness can not wholly be 
made good by a strengthening ring around the opening. 2. By 
causing a tension equal to that on the crown area of steam dome, 
upon the annular part of the shell covered by the flange of the 
dome. The weakest part of the boiler shell will be where the dis- 
tance from rivet hole at the base of the dome to edge of plate is 
least. It is difficult, owing to the complex nature of the strains, 
to form a rule whereby to determine how much the strength of 
the shell is impaired by using a dome; but it is quite apparent 
from general experience that they are in many cases a source of 
weakness, and the larger the dome connection with the shell, the 
greater the liability to rupture. 

This tendency to rupture is due to the fact that the dome, with 
its connecting flange, is practically inelastic ; that portion of the 
shell of the boiler covered by the dome is, as soon as the pressure 
is introduced on both sides of the plate, simply a curved brace. 
The pressure of the steam in the boiler, has a tendency to straighten 
the shell under the dome and thus brings about a series of com- 
plex strains which are not easily remedied by any system of brac- 
ing, so that on the whole it is preferable to use a small connecting 
nozzle with a drum above it, rather than to rivet a large dome 
directly to the shell. 

Dry Pipe. — This is a pipe having numerous small perforations 
on its upper side, and inserted in the upper part of the steam 
space of the boiler. This pipe does not dry the steam, but acts 
mechanically by separating the steam from the water when the 
latter is in a violent state of agitation, and is liable to be carried 
in bulk toward or into the steam pipe. The object of these num- 
erous small holes in the pipe is that a small quantity of steam may 
be taken from a large number of openings at one time, and thus 
carried over a larger extent of surface than that afforded by a sin- 
gle opening, and by this simple device checking the tendency to 



STEAM BOILER FURNACES. 61 

priming. This pipe leading from the boiler is sometimes carried 
through the combustion chamber under the boiler, and from 
thence to the engine ; a practice which is not recommended under 
any ordinary circumstances. 

Steam Boiler Furnaces are receiving more attention now than 
perhaps ever before. The question of economy of fuel is being 
closely studied, and there is now an effort to save much ot the 
heat which had formerly been allowed to go to waste. 

The main thing in furnace construction is to get perfect combus- 
tion. Without this there must be of necessity a great loss con- 
stantly going on. There are some losses which it is difficult to 
prevent, for example — the loss by the admission of too much air 
in the ash pit ; the loss by incomplete combustion ; the loss occa- 
sioned by the heated gases escaping up the chimney , the loss by 
radiation ; but chief among these is that of incomplete combustion. 

To burn a pound of coal requires about twelve pounds of air, or 
say 150 cubic feet. Most boiler settings permit from 200 to 300 
feet to pass through the fire. It is needless to point out the great 
source of loss arising from this one cause alone. This may be pre- 
vented in a measure by having a suitable damper in the chimney 
and regulating the flow of escaping gases by it instead of the ash- 
pit doors. 

If the furnace is so constructed that the fuel is imperfectly 
burned, so that carbonic oxide instead of carbonic acid gas is 
formed the loss is very great, as shown on page 16. This results 
often from too little air supply and too low temperature in the 
furnace. The furnace doors should be provided with an opening 
leading into the space between the door proper and the liner ; this 
opening ought to have a sliding or revolving register by which the 
admission of air may be controlled. By this means the quantity 
of air admitted above the fire may be adjusted to its needs by a 
little attention on the part of the fireman. The liner to the fur- 
nace door should have a number of small holes in it rather than 
a solid plate, w T ith a space around the edges. 

Great care should be exercised in the construction of furnace 
walls that the materials and workmanship be good throughout. 
The entire structure should be brick including the foundations. 



38 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

The outer walls may be of good, hard, red brick, but the interior 
walls around the furnace and bridge walls should be of fire brick. 

The best quality of fire brick for withstanding an intense heat are 
never very strong and tenacious ; the structure is open and they 
are free from black spots, due to sulphuret of iron in the clay ; if 
well burned they will not be very light colored on the outside, 
and will have a clear ring w T hen struck. 

Fire brick should be laid up in a thin mortar made of fire clay 
rather than in a lime and sand mortar such as is lued in ordinary 
red brickwork. 

In laying up those portions of a boiler furnace requiring fire 
brick, provision should be made in the original wall for replacing 
the fire brick and without disturbing the outer brickwork. 

Grate Bars are as a general thing made of cast iron, two or 
three being combined in a single casting. 

There are many fanciful designs for grate bars which appear 
from time to time, and many absurd claims are advocated in their 
behalf. The only possible advantage which such a grate-bar could 
possess over a well designed ordinary bar would seem to be that 
of durability, or strength to resist the action of intense heat. It is 
better for deep furnaces to have two sets of short grate-bars than 
one set of long ones ; that is, if a furnace is five or six feet deep to 
have two lengths of grates of half the former length. This will 
prevent the distortion of the grate surface by the twisting or 
bending which is almost sure to occur with long bars. The thick- 
ness of metal on the top of the grate-bars is from § to | inch for 
about half an inch down, when it is gradually thinned to about 
5-16 inch thick at the lower edge. The space between the bars is 
usually half an inch. As a general thing the same bars are used 
for all kinds of fuel. 

Rocking, revolving, reciprocating and other forms of grate-bars 
are in use in many localities and are working very satisfactorily. 
These are proprietary designs and are furnished only by the man- 
ufacturers or their agents. 

The Bridge Wall is a wall of fire-brick built up at the rear end 
of the grates, to within about a foot of the under side of the boiler. 



CHIMNEYS. 39 

It is not customary to give it a curve, but it is carried straight 
across the furnace from side to side. This wall is sometimes built 
hollow with an air space communicating with the atmosphere; 
the wall being fitted either by a perforated plate or a narrow open- 
ing made by the brick layer so as to permit a flow of heated air 
through the bridge wall into the combustion chamber. 

Sometimes a wrought iron water back is employed with water 
pipes connecting with the boiler, but as a general thing the wall is 
simply solid brickwork. The exact height to which a bridge wail 
is to be carried will depend upon the kind and quantity of fuel 
burned, and if the ordinary distance of twelve inches from the 
boiler does not give the best results it may be changed by simply 
laying on or taking off a layer or two of bricks on the top. 

At the rear end of the boiler another wall is built; this has a 
curved top following the curve of the boiler; the area of this 
opening may be about one-sixth of the grate area. The space be- 
tween this wall and the bridge wall is called the combustion 
-chamber. This chamber should be as large and roomy as possible 
to insure a perfect diffusion of gases and prevent a too rapid cur- 
rent beneath the boiler. 

Chimneys should have an area of about one-eighth that of the 
grate area ; and if of wrought iron it should be about 25 diameters 
high, andfehould be provided with a wrought iron band one-third 
the distance from the top, to which are to be secured three guy 
rods ; these are best made of wrought iron rods linked together 
with welded rings or eyes; the diameters will vary from 5-16 to 
i inch, depending upon the height and weight of the stack. 



CHAP. V. 

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF A 
BOILER. 

It is not enough that a hoiler be of approved design, made of the 
best materials and put together in the best manner ; that it have 
the best furnace and the most approved feed and safety apparatus. 
These are all desirable and are to be commended, but cleanliness 
and careful management are quite essential to getting high results 
and are also conducive to long use in service. 

Pumps. — Special attention should be given at all times to the 
feed and safety apparatus ; the pumps should be in good working 
order; it is preferable that they be independent steam pumps 
rather than pumps driven by the engine or by a belt ; they should 
be kept well packed and the valves in good condition. 

Firing. — Kindle a fire and raise steam slowly; never force a 
fire so long as the water in the boiler is below the boiling point. 
The fire should be of an even height, and of such a thickness as 
will be found best for the particular fuel to be burned, but should 
be no thicker than actually necessary. In regard to the size of 
coal used, that will depend upon circumstances. If anthracite 
coal is used it should not, for. stationary boilers, be larger than 
ordinary stove coal. For bituminous coal, which is always ship- 
ped in lumps as large as can be conveniently handled, the size will 
vary somewhat in breaking, but it may in general be used in 
larger lumps than anthracite. 

If the coal is likely to cake in burning the fire should be 
broken up quite frequently with a slice bar or it will fuse into a 
large mass in the center of the furnace and lower the rate of com- 



GAUGE COCKS. 41 

bustion. If the coal is likely to form a considerable quantity of 
clinker, or enough to become troublesome, it may be advantageous 
to increase the grate area and thus lower the rate of combustion 
per square foot of grate, and have a fire of less intensity. 

The fire should be kept free from ashes, and the ash pit should 
be kept clean. 

Whenever the fire door of a steam boiler furnace is opened, the 
damper should be closed to prevent the sudden reduction of tem- 
perature underneath, which is likely to injure the boiler by 
contraction, and thus render it likely to spring a leak around the 
riveted joints. Some firemen are very careless in this respect, and 
there is little doubt that many a disagreeable job of repairing a 
leaky seam, might be prevented by this simple precaution. 

Gauge Cocks should be used constantly to keep them free from 
any accumulation of sediment. It is a very common practice to 
rely wholly on the indications of the glass water gauge for the 
w r ater level in the boiler. This is all wrong, and should be discon- 
tinued if once begun. The glass water gauge serves a very useful 
purpose, but it should not be wholly relied on in practice. In 
using the ordinary gauge cocks, the ear, more than the eye detects 
the water level, and thus acts as a check on the indications given 
by the glass gauge. 

Water Gauges should be tested several times during the day to 
see that they are clear, and to keep them free from any sediment 
likely to form around the lower opening to the water in the boiler. 
If this is not attended to the water gauge is likely to indicate a 
wrong water level and a serious accident may be the result. 

Steam or Pressure Gauges are likely to become set after long 
use and should be tested at least once, or better still, twice a year 
by a standard gauge known to be correct. They should also be 
tested every few days if the boilers are constantly under steam by 
turning off the steam and allowing the pointer to run back to zero. 
If there are two or more boilers set together in one battery, and 
each boiler has its ow r n steam gauge, and which will, starting from 
the zero point, indicate the same pressure on all the gauges, they 
may be assumed to be correct. 



42 HAND BOOK FOK STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Blow-off Cocks or valves should be examined frequently and 
should never be allowed to leak. In general a cock is to be per- 
ferred to a valve, but if the latter is selected it should be some one 
of the various "straight- way valves" of which there are now sev- 
eral in the market. If the cock is a large one, and especially if it 
has either a cast iron shell or plug, it should be taken apart after 
each blowing out of the boilers, examined, greased with tallow and 
returned. 

Blowing Out. — This should be done at least once a month, 
except in the very rare instances in which water is used that will 
not form scale. The boiler should not be blown out until the fur- 
nace is quite cold, as the heat retained in the walls is likely to 
injure an empty boiler directly by overheating the plates, and 
indirectly by hardening the scale within the boiler. 

Bad effects are likely to follow when a boiler is emptied of its 
water before the side walls have become cool; but greater injury 
is likely to result when cold water is pumped into an empty boiler 
beated in this manner. 

The unequal contraction of the boiler is likely to produce leaky 
seams in the shell and to loosen the tubes and stays. It is a better 
plan to allow the boiler to remain empty until it is quite cold, or 
sufficiently reduced in temperature to permit its being filled with- 
out injury. Many boilers of good material and workmanship 
have been ruined by the neglect of this simple precaution. 

Fusible Plugs should be carefully examined any time the water 
is blown out of the boiler, as scale is likely to form over the por- 
tion projecting into the water space. It is only a question of time 
when this scale would form over the end of the plug and thick 
enough to withstand the pressure of steam and thus fail in the 
accomplishment of the very object for which it was introduced. 
This applies especially to the fusible plugs inserted in the crown 
sheets of portable engine boilers. 

Cleaning Tubes. — This should be done every day if bituminous 
coal is used. A portable steam jet will be found an extremely 
useful contrivance which will keep them reasonably clean by 



FOAMING OK PKIMING. 43 

Mowing out the loose soot and ashes' deposited in the tubes. 
Every two or three days or at least once a week, a tube scraper 
or stiff brush should be used to take out all the ashes or soot 
adhering to the tubes and which cannot be blown out with the 
jet. Flues may be cleaned the same way but will not require to 
be done so frequently. 

Low Water, — If from any cause the water gets low in the boiler, 
bank the fires with ashes or with fresh coal as quickly as pos- 
sible, shut the damper and ash pit doors and leave the fire doors 
wide open ; do not disturb the running of the engine but allow it 
to use all the steam the boiler is making ; do not under any cir- 
cumstances attempt to force water in the boiler. 

After the steam is all used and the boiler cooled sufficiently to 
be safe, then the w r ater may be admitted and brought up to the 
regular working height ; the damper opened and the fires allowed 
to burn, and steam raised as usual ; provided no injury has been 
done the boiler by overheating. 

Foaming or priming is always troublesome, and often danger- 
ous. Some boilers foam almost continually because of their bad 
proportions, and will require the constant care of the person in 
charge, especially at such times as the engine may be using the 
steam up to the full capacity of the boiler. In a case of this kind 
an increase of pressure will often check but will not entirely pre- 
vent it ; nothing short of an increase of water surface, or a better 
circulation of water, or a larger steam room will afford a complete 
remedy. If the foaming or priming is due to a sudden liberation 
of steam, or on account of impure feed water, it may be checked 
by closing the throttle valve to the engine and oj>ening the fire 
door for a few minutes. The surface blow may be used with advan- 
tage at this time, by blowing off the impurities collected on the 
surface of the water. The feed pump may be used if necessary, 
but care should be exercised that too much cold water be not 
forced into the boiler, and thus lose time by having to wait for the 
accumulation of the regular steam pressure required for the 
engine. 

The dangers attending foaming or priming are:— the laying 



44 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

bare of heating surfaces in the boiler, and of breaking down the 
engine by working water into the cylinder. The commonest 
damage to the engine being either the breaking of a cylinder head, 
or the cross head, or the breaking of the piston. 

When boilers are new and set to work for the first time priming 
is a very frequent occurrence ; in fact it may be said that for the 
first few days there is always more or less of it. All that is needed 
during this time is a little care on the part of the attendant to 
see that the water is kept up to the required level in the boiler ; 
it is also recommended that the throttle valve to the engine be 
partially closed to prevent any very great variation of pressure in 
the boiler, and thus prevent water passing over with the steam 
in such quantities as to become dangerous. 

If a boiler continues to prime after it has had a w T eeks work 
and then thoroughly cleaned, the causes are to be attributed to 
other than the grease and dirt in it, which are inseparable from 
the manufacture. 

As already said, priming may be caused by a sudden reduction 
of pressure ; that is, a boiler may be working smoothly and well 
with, say 80 pounds pressure ; if an increase of load be suddenly 
applied to the engine so as to reduce the pressure to 70 or 60 
pounds, this sudden reduction of pressure will almost always 
cause priming ; the less the steam space in the boiler the greater 
the tendency to prime, and the greater the difficulty in checking it. 
The only permanent cure for this is more boiler power ; as a 
temporary expedient the engine should be throttled sufficiently 
to make the drain upon the boiler constant instead of intermittent. 
If the duty required of an engine is irregular, the steam pressure 
should be carried higher ; in any case similar to the above it is 
recommended that the pressure be increased to 90 or 100 pounds 
and the throttling to begin with the increased drain upon the 
boiler. But this is at best a mere make shift, and the larger boiler 
power becomes imperative both on the score of economy and 
safety. 

Water is composed by weight of 

Hydrogen 11.111 «■ 
Oxygen 88.888 ■+ 
100. 



WATER. 45 

Between 32° and 212° Fahr. and at ordinary atmospheric pres- 
sure, water is liquid ; below 32° Fahr. it freezes, the ice occupying 
a larger bulk than the same weight of water and is the reason why 
it floats. Above 212° F. water is converted into steam. The 
greatest density of water is at 39.2° F. At 60° F. water weighs 
62.35 lbs. per cubic foot, or 9.33 lbs. per gallon (231 inches). 

Water is never pure, except w T hen made so in a laboratory or by 
distillation; the impurities may be divided into four classes : 1, 
mechanical impurities ; 2, gaseous impurities ; 3, dissolved mine- 
ral impurities ; 4, organic impurities. 

a. Mechanical impurities may be both mineral and organic. 
The commonest suspended impurity in water is mud or 
sand, these may be removed by filtration or by allowing 
the water to stand long enough to let them settle to the 
bottom of the tank or cistern and then carefully drawing the 
water from the top, and without disturbing the bottom. 

b. Gaseous impurities in water vary somewhat according to the 
localities from which they are obtained. The commonest gases 
found in the water are an excess of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic 
acid. These have no effect on water intended for steam boilers. 

c. Dissolved mineral impurities in w T ater are of the most varied 
description and are almost always found in it. Among these are 
found salts of iron, sulphate and carbonates of lime, sulphate and 
carbonates of magnesia, salt and alkalies, such as soda, potash, etc.; 
acids, such as sulphuric, phosphoric and others. All of these are 
more or less injurious to steam boilers. The most objectionable 
are the salts of lime and magnesia which impart to water that 
property known as hardness. When such water is used in a 
steam boiler a scale will gradually form, which will in a short time 
become very troublesome. 

d. Organic impurities are present to a certain extent in most 
waters. They are sometimes present in the water in sufficient 
quantities to give it a very decided color and taste. 

The presence of organic matter in water is often dangerous to 
health and may be a means of spreading contagious diseases, but 
has little or no bad effect in any water used for steam boilers. 

In general water is regarded by engineers as being either soft, 
hard or salt. 



46 HAND 3J00K FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Salt water contains not only salt but chloride of magnesium, 
bromide of sodium, sulphate of potash, sulphate of magnesia, and 
sulphate of lime. The scale formed by this water is very hard, 
and troublesome to remove. It is generally loosened in the boiler 
by means of a pick and then washed out through the hand holes 
at the bottom of the boiler. 

Ebullition is the motion produced in a liquid by its rapid con- 
version into vapor. When heat is applied to the bottom of a 
boiler the particles of water in contact with the plates become 
heated and immediately expand and becoming specifically lighter 
pass upwards through the colder body of water above; the heat 
of the furnace is in this way diffused throughout the whole 
body of water in the boiler by a translation of the particles 
of water from below upwards, and from top to bottom in regular 
succession. After a time this liquid mass becomes heated to a 
degree in which there is a violent agitation of the whole body of 
water, steam is given off, and it is said to boil. 

The temperature at the boiling point of water, at ordinary 
atmospheric pressure, is 212° Fahr. and increases as the pressure 
of steam above it increases. 

Distilled water for boilers is not to be recommended without 
some reservation. Chemically pure water and especially water 
which has been redistilled several times has a corrosive action on 
iron which is often very troublesome. 

The effect on iron plates by the use of water several times re- 
distilled, such for example as that supplied by surface condensers, 
is well known ; information is yet wanting which shall point 
with certainty to the exact change which the water undergoes, and 
explain why its action on, or affinity for iron is so greatly inten- 
sified. It has been suggested, as a means of neutralizing this cor- 
rosive action of the water to introduce with the feed other water 
which shall have the property of forming a scale, and continuing 
it long enough and at such intervals as will permit the formation 
of a thin scale in the interior of the boiler. 

However objectionable this may seem at first sight, it is at pres- 
ent the best practical solution of the difficulty. 



SCALE. AT 

Scale is a bad conductor of heat and is opposed to economical 
evaporation. It is estimated that a thickness of half an inch of 
hard scale firmly attached to a boiler plate will require a tempera- 
ture of about 700° Fahr. in the boiler plate in order to raise and 
maintain an ordinary steam pressure of 75 pounds. 

The mischevous effects of accumulated scale in the boiler, 
especially in the plates immediately over the fire are, (1) preventing 
the water from coming in contact with the plates and thus directly 
contributing to the overheating of the latter, and (2) by causing a 
change of structure in the plates and the consequent weakening 
brought about by this continued overheating, which would in a 
short time render an iron or steel plate wholly unfit for use in a 
steam boiler. 

The two principle ingredients in boiler scale are lime and mag- 
nesia. The lime when in combination with carbonic acid forms 
carbonate of lime; when in combination with sulphuric acid it 
then becomes sulphate of lime. This is also true of magnesia. 

Carbonate of lime will form in the boiler as a loose powder 
which is held mechanically in suspension; while in this stage it 
maybe blown out of the boiler without injury to it; but it is 
seldom that a pure carbonate is formed in the boiler as there are 
usually other impurities in the water with which it combines to 
form a hard scale. This is especially true in such waters as also 
contain sulphate of lime in solution. This fine powder, (carbonate 
of lime), will form a hard scale should any adhere to the sides or 
bottom of a boiler, in any case where the boiler is blown out dry 
while the furnace walls are still hot, and this in itself forms an 
excellent reason why boilers should stand until the furnace walls 
are cold before blowing out. When emptied, nearly or all of this 
slushy deposit may be washed out of the boiler by means of a 
hose. 

Sulphate of lime is not so easily got rid of as it is heavier than 
carbonate of lime and adheres to the plates while the boiler is at 
work. It is the most troublesome scale steam engineers have to 
deal with, it is very difficult to remove and by successive lay- 
ers becomes dangerous on account of the thickness to which it 
eventually accumulates. 

The carbonates of lime and magnesia may be largely arrested by 



48 HANI) BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

passing the feed water through a suitable heater and lime extrac- 
tor. It must be apparent to every one that any device which will 
accomplish this is a very desirable attachment to a steam boiler. 
As it is not possible to eliminate all the foreign matter in the 
water from it, recourse is often had to the use of solvents, and 
chemical agencies for the prevention of scale. Some of these are 
very simple and within easy reach, others are surrounded by an 
atmosphere of uncertainty and the real nature of the compound is 
hidden under a meaningless trade mark. 

For carbonate of lime potatoes have been found to be very 
serviceable in preventing the formation of scale ; its action appears 
to be that of surrounding the particles of lime with a coating of 
starch or gelatine and thus preventing the cohesion of these par- 
ticles to form a mass. Various astringents have been used for 
this purpose, such as extracts of oak and hemlock bark, nutgalls, 
catechu, etc., with varying success. 

The following is said to be a good preventive for boiler scale : — 

One hundred pounds of logwood, mahogany or oak sawdust, 
twenty pounds of sal soda, and ten pounds of yellow ochre — the 
sawdust to be dry, mixed with the sal soda and ochre, and ground 
in a burr mill to the consistency of shorts used as horse feed. It 
may be used once a week, in seven pound charges the first five 
weeks, and five pound charges once a week thereafter ; — it may be 
introduced either through the safety valve if of the ordinary 
weight and lever description, or through the man hole. 

Carbonate of soda has been used and with very great success in 
some localities, not only in preventing but in actually removing 
scale already formed. It acts on carbonate of lime not only, but 
on the sulphate also. It is clean, free from grit, and is quite 
unobjectionable in the boiler, one or more pounds per day 
depending on the size of the boiler, may be admitted through the 
pump with the feed water, or, admitted in the morning before 
firing up, by simply mixing with water and pouring it into the 
boiler through the safety valve or other opening. 

Tannate of soda has been similarly employed and is an excellent 
scale preventive. It will also act as a solvent for scale already 
formed in the boiler, acting on sulphate as well as carbonate of 
lime. 



ZINC IN STEAM BOILEHS. 49 

Crude petroleum has been found very beneficial in removing the 
hard scale composed principally of sulphate of lime. 

Zinc in Steam Boilers.* — The employment of zinc in steam 
boilers, like that of soda, lias been adopted for two distinct objects, 
(1) to prevent corrosion, and (2) to prevent and remove incrusta- 
tion. To attain the first object it has been used chiefly in marine 
boilers, and for the second chiefly in boilers fed with fresh water. 

In order that the application of zinc in marine boilers may be 
eflecti ve it is necessary that the metallic contact should be insured. 
If galvanic action alone is relied upon for the protection of the 
plates and tubes, it will doubtless be diminished materially by the 
coating of oxide that exists between all joints of plates, whether 
lapped or butted, and also between the rivets and the plates. 

Assuming the preservative action of zinc to be proved when 
properly applied, we have now two systems for preventing the 
internal decay of marine boilers, viz: allowing the plates and 
tubes to become coated with scale, and employing zinc. It remains 
to decide which of these two systems is the best with respect to 
economy and practicability. 

"We come now to consider the use of zinc for preventing and 
removing incrustation. The application of zinc for this purpose 
has been extremely limited in this country, but in Europe it has 
been pretty extensively adopted, mainly in stationary boilers, and 
as may be expected w T ith very different and conflicting results. 

In some cases the use of zinc has been attended with great suc- 
cess in preventing and removing scale, in others no beneficial effect 
could be perceived, whilst in others again it has done more harm 
than good. 

At one time it was considered that the action of zinc in pre- 
venting incrustation was physical or mechanical. 

The particles of zinc as it wasted away were supposed to become 
mixed amongst the solid matter precipitated from the water in 
such a manner as to prevent it adhering together, so as to form a 
hard scale, or the particles of zinc were supposed to become 
deposited upon the plates, and so prevent the scale from adhering 

*Condensed from Engineering. 



50 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

to them. Then it was suggested that the zinc acted chemically, 
and now it is the generally received opinion that its action is gal- 
vanic in preventing incrustation as well as in preventing corrosion. 

When the water contains an excess of sulphates or chlorides 
over the carbonates, the acid of the former will form soluble salts 
with the oxide of zinc, the surface of the zinc will be kept clean, 
and the galvanic current, to which the efficiency of the zinc is due 
will be maintained. On the other hand should there be a prepon- 
derating amount of carbonates, the zinc will be covered first with 
oxide, then with carbonates, and its useful action arrested and 
stopped. 

It is quite as important that the zinc should be in metallic con- 
tact with the plates when used to prevent incrustation as when 
employed to prevent corrosion. The application of zinc for the 
former purpose should never be attempted without first having 
the water analyzed in order to ascertain whether it is likely to 
be effective. The use of zinc in externally fired boilers should 
be attempted with great caution, as when efficacious in prevent- 
ing the formation of a hard scale, it is liable to produce a heavy 
sludge that may settle over the furnace plates and lead to over- 
heating. On the whole we cannot but regard the evidence as to 
the effect of zinc upon incrustation as being very conflicting. 

Evaporative Tests. — It is important that everything be got 
in readiness before the day fixed for ttie test. The boiler should 
be perfectly clean and tight ; the grates in good condition ; the 
draft under perfect control ; the water supply arranged so that the 
quantity used may be either weighed or measured ; the former is 
to be preferred. The coal should be of uniform size and quality 
and carefully weighed when delivered to the firemen. The tem- 
perature of the feed water should be taken at least every half hour 
by means of a thermometer previously tested and known to be 
correct. The pressure of steam should be kept as near constant as 
possible, and special precautions should be taken that the steam 
gauge be correct in its readings. 

Calorimeter tests should be made frequently to ascertain the 
dryness of the steam. 

Short boiler tests are always more or less unsatisfactory, they 



BLISTERS. 51 

ought to extend over at least 8 hours continuously, or better still 
10 hours. Steam should be raised on the boiler to the intended 
pressure, the fire "hauled," and a new one kindled on clean 
grates. The depth of the fire will depend upon circumstances; 
some coals will require a thicker fire than others. The engineer 
in charge should be the judge as to what thickness is best in 
order to get the most economical results. At the end of the 
trial the fire is again to be " hauled " and quenched, the remaining 
coal weighed up and charged back ; the ashes and clinkers to be 
weighed dry and deducted from the coal charged in order to 
determine the net combustible. Sometimes it is not practicable 
to haul the fires in a test, and recourse is then had to the judgment 
of the engineer or fireman in determining the condition of the fire 
both at the beginning and end of a trial. 

Leaks should be stopped as soon as possible after their discovery, 
the kind of leak will indicate the treatment necessary. If it occurs 
around the ends of the tubes it may be stopped by expanding the 
tubes anew; if in a riveted joint, it should be carefully examined 
especially along the line of the rivets and care should be exercised 
in determining whether there is a crack extending from rivet to 
rivet along the line of the holes ; should this prove to be the case, 
the boiler is then in an extremely dangerous condition and under 
no circumstances should it be again fired up until suitable repairs 
have been made which will insure its safety. 

Blisters occur in plates which are made up of several thick- 
nesses of iron and which from some cause were not thoroughly 
welded before the final rolling into plates. 

When such a plate comes in contact with the heat of the fur- 
nace the thinnest portion of the defective plate " buckles " and 
forms what is called a blister. As soon as discovered, there should 
be a thorough examination of the plate and if repairs are needed 
there should be as little delay as possible in making them. If the 
blister be very thin and altogether on the surface it may be chipped 
and dressed around the edges, if the thickness is equal or exceeds 
one-sixteenth of an inch the blister should be cut out and patched 
or a new plate put in. 



52 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Patching Boilers. — When a boiler requires patching it is better 
to cut out the defective sheets and rivet in a new one, or if this 
cannot be done, a new piece large enough to cover the defect in 
the old sheet may be riveted over the hole from which the defec- 
tive portion has been cut out. If this occurs in any portion of the 
boiler subject to the ;action of the fire, the lap should be the same 
as the edges of the boiler seams, and should be carefully calked 
around the edges after riveting. "Whenever blisters occur in a 
plate, patching is a comparatively simple thing as against the 
repairs of a plate worn by corrosion. In the latter case the defec- 
tive portions of the plate should be entirely removed and the 
openings should show sound metal all around, and of full 
thickness. 

If this cannot be obtained within a reasonable sized opening 
then the whole plate should be removed. 

It often occurs that a minor defect is found in a plate and at a 
time when it is not convenient to stop for repairs; in such an 
event a " soft patch " is often applied. This consists of a piece 
of wrought iron carefully fitted to that portion pf the boiler plate 
needing repairs ; holes are fitted in both plates and patch and 
"patch bolts" provided for them. A thick putty consisting of 
white and red lead with iron borings or filings in them placed 
evenly over the inner surface of the patch which is then tightly 
bolted to the boiler plate. This is at best but a temporary make- 
shift and ought never to be regarded as a permanent repair. 

A mistake is often made in making a patch of thicker metal 
than that of the shell of the boiler needing it. A moments 
reflection ought to show the absurdity of putting on a five- 
sixteenth or three-eighths patch on an old one-quarter inch boiler 
shell ; yet it is not so rare an occurence as one would imagine. A 
piece of new iron three-sixteenths of an inch thick will in most 
cases be found to be stronger than that portion of a one-quarter 
inch old plate needing repairs. 



CHAP. VI. 



BOILER EXPLOSIONS. 

There are few facts more difficult to get at than those relating 
to boiler explosions ; and, owing to the absence of reliable data on 
this subject, the most absurd notions have been advanced as 
accounting for its disastrous effects under all sorts of conditions 
from the simple rupture to the true explosion. 

Among the causes assigned at one time or another may be fnen- 
tioned the following : — electricity ; decomposition of steam result- 
ing in the generation of explosive gases ; overheating of plates ; 
over-pressure ; the spheroidal theory, in which a large volume of 
steam is supposed to be instantly generated by coming in contact 
with highly heated plates, the water having been previously 
repelled from the plates by overheating, or by the formation of 
a vapor between the boiler plate and the water, thereby preventing 
contact for a time. 

As explosions seldom or never give any warning, and are of 
momentary duration only, it is a very difficult thing to arrive at 
the true cause of any disaster, and a remarkable thing about it is 
the evident unwillingness on the part of the owners or those in 
charge to tell what they do happen to know in regard to the boiler. 
There is no doubt this has had much to do with surrounding 
boiler explosions with the air of mystery now so common, and 
has, no doubt, been a means of perpetuating so many of the absurd 
theories so common a few years ago, and still believed by many. 

Over-pressure. — There is little doubt that the vast majority of 
boiler explosions can be traced directly to over-pressure. A boiler 
maybe unable to withstand a calculated strain from one of the two- 
following causes, (1) an original defect in the boiler plate, and 



54 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

(2) by bad workmanship; it is possible, and it actually occurs 
that these two are sometimes combined in the same boiler ; that 
a boiler containing these two defects should at some time or 
another meet with disaster is not improbable, but should not be 
considered as mysterious, or due to occult causes, beyond human 
knowledge or prevention. 

Over-pressure may be sudden or gradual, and when it exceeds 
its limit of strength the boiler bursts, sometimes with little 
violence and doing but little damage, in which case it is commonly 
said to be a simple rupture ; at another time the boiler bursts 
with terrific violence doing great damage and ending in a total 
wreck of the boiler, it is then said to have exploded. Rupture 
and explosion seem to be but two names representing in degree 
the effects following the failure of a boiler. 

It is the common practice to permit a pressure per square inch 
of one-sixth the total strength of the boiler ; in all ordinary cases 
this is an ample margin of safety, but if any one of the plates com- 
posing the structure have a hidden and undiscovered defect the 
boiler may fail in its first trial notwithstanding every care may 
have been exercised in design and construction. 

Defects of this kind rarely occur, the commoner one being that 
of bad workmanship occasioned by wrong punching, excessive 
drifting, wrong crossing of seams, over-heating of plates in flang- 
ing, grooving with a calking tool, etc. These all tend to lower the 
strength and safety of the boiler, and it is to be regretted that 
there are boiler makers who are either so ignorant of proper 
methods of construction; or so indifferent to the value of life and 
property that defects of this kind are allowed to pass from them 
into the hands of an unsuspecting and innocent purchaser. If 
disaster should follow such a transfer, and the facts could be 
ascertained, they would at once and completely dispel any fine spun 
theory of occult causes so far as it related to such a boiler not only, 
but the aggregation of such testimony would in time place the 
causes where in most cases they properly belong. 

A new boiler ought, if the materials and workmanship are good, 
and the. design suitable for the pressure, such a boiler ought to be 
safe from bursting up to within a very small margin of the cal- 
culated strength. 



BOILER EXPLOSIONS. 55 

Experimental boilers have shown the truth of this statement 
over and over again ; yet it would be a hazardous proceeding to 
raise steam in a boiler which at all approached any such pressure. 
A single riveted iron boiler 42 inches in diameter, and made of £ 
inch plate having a tensile strength of 45,000 pounds per square 
inch, may be worked with safety at a pressure of 90 pounds, and 
ought to bear a pressure of 500 pounds per square inch before 
rupture. This seems like a very wide margin of safety, but it is 
none too much. 

To show how quickly a boiler will generate steam from a safe to 
the bursting pressure let us assume that the above boiler con- 
tains within it 6000 pounds of water, the grate to have an area of 18 
square feet on which are burned 16 pounds of coal per square foot 
of grate, and each pound of coal to evaporate 8 pounds of water 
per hour. ' The ordinary working pressure to be 90 pounds. 

The temperature due to a pressure of 500 pounds per square 
inch is 467° Fahr.; that of 90 pounds pressure is 331° Fahr. Then 
467 — 331= 136° difference between the two temperatures.- 

18 square feet of grate x 16 lbs. coal=288 pounds of coal per 
hour. 

288 lbs. coal x 8 lbs. water =2304 pounds of water evaporated per 
hour, or 38.4 lbs. per minute. 

Then 3{ | 4 ^^ =21 J minutes as the time necessary to burst a 
boiler by over-pressure under the conditions stated. Now if the 
strength of the shell should be reduced by bad workmanship, or 
through any defect in the material, or the thickness reduced by 
corrosion, or from any other cause so that the shell is reduced to 
400 pounds or 300 pounds as the ultimate strength to resist pres- 
sure, we see in how short a time it would be possible to generate a 
steam pressure that would have sufficient power to tear the boiler 
asunder if once it began to yield and there was no outlet for the 
steam. 

It might be said that the above is not a supposable case, and 
that such a condition of affairs could not exist in any well regu- 
lated establishment. So far from its not being a supposable case 
there is abundant reason for believing that it not unfairly repre- 
sents the real reason for a very great number of boiler explosions. 



56 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Such a disaster would be likely to occur when the engine was not 
running and the safety valve was not in good condition. 

In order to show how easily it is to be misled into a sense of 
security through sheer ignorance of facts, and to show that safety 
valves if not carefully watched and kept in good condition will 
through neglect become positively dangerous, is abundantly shown 
in the following figures compiled from four annual reports of Mr. 
J. M. Allen,* Hartford, Conn., showing that in the regular course of 
business they discovered in all 1672 defective safety valves of 
which 678 were regarded as dangerous. 

In the great majority of cases the cause of explosion is simply 
the unfitness of the boiler for the pressure at which it is worked, 
the unfitness in some instances being due to original malconstruc- 
tion, and in others to the neglected condition into which the boiler 
has been allowed to fall ; the plates being frequently wasted away 
by corrosion till reduced to the thickness of ordinary cardboard. 
Thus boiler owners have it in their own power to prevent by far 
the greater number of these accidents by simply erecting good 
boilers instead of low-priced inferior ones, and keeping them in 
an efficient state of repair. 

The notion that there is a mysterious and occult agency at work 
in the interior of a boiler which may, and sometimes does, liberate 
itself and thereby produces disastrous boiler explosions is how 
happily passing away. It is true there have been terrific explo- 
sions which have resulted in loss of life and great destruction of 
property, and which have never been satisfactorily explained,, 
but this by no means strengthens, much less does it prove, any 
such theory. 

There is now little doubt in the minds of those who have made 
boiler exjriosions a study, that with few exceptions a good and 
sufficient reason for the occurance could be furnished not only, 
but in many cases if not in most of them, the explosion might 
have been entirely prevented by a careful external and internal 
examination. 

Inspection, — A careful external and internal examination of a 
boiler is to be commended for many reasons. This should be as 

'Prest Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection niul Insurance Co. 



CORKOSION OF BOILEH PLATES. 57 

frequent as possible and thoroughly done ; it should include the 
boiler not only but all the attachments which affect its working 
or pressure. Particular attention should be paid to the examina- 
tion of all braces and stays, safety valve, pressure gauge, water 
gauges, feed and blow off apparatus, etc.; these latter refer more 
particularly to constructive details necessary to proper manage- 
ment and safety. The inspection would obviously be incomplete, 
did it not include an examination into the causes of " wear and 
tear," and determine the extentto which it had progressed. Among 
the several causes which directly tend to rendering a boiler unsafe 
may be mentioned the dangerous results occasioned by the over- 
heating of plates, thus changing the structure of the iron from fine 
granular or fibrous to coarse crystalline. This may easily be 
detected by examination, and will in general be found to occur in 
such cases where the boilers are too small for the work, or fired 
too hard, or have a considerable accumulation of scale or sediment 
in contact with the plates. Blistered plates are almost instantly 
detected at sight, so also is corrosion from whatever cause it may 
have proceeded. 

Corrosion of Boiler Plates. — Iron will corrode rapidly when 
subjected to the intermittent action of moisture and dryness. 
Land boilers are less subject to corrosion than marine boilers. 
The corrosion of a boiler may be either external or internal. 
External corrosion may in general, be easily prevented by care- 
fully caulking all leaks in the boiler ; by : preventing the dropping 
of water on the plates, such for example, as from a leaky joint 
in the steam pipe or from the safety valve. A leaky roof by 
allowing a continual or occasional dropping of water on the top of 
a boiler especially if the boiler is not in constant use, would 
promote external corrosion. Sometimes external corrosion is 
caused by the use coal having sulphur in it, and acts in this way : 
the sulphur passes off from the fire as sulphurous oxide, which 
often attaches to the sides of the boiler; so long as this is 
dry no especial mischief is done, but if it comes in contact with a 
wet plate the sulphurous oxide is converted into sulphuric acid 
over so much of the surface as the moisture extends, this acid 
attacks and will in time entirely destroy the boiler plate. 



58 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Internal corrosion is not so easily accounted for and is very 
difficult to correct, especially when it occurs above the water line. 
It is generally believed to be due to the action of acids in the feed 
water. Marine boilers are especially subject to internal corrosion 
when used in connection with surface condensers. A few years 
ago it was generally supposed to be due to to galvanic action, but 
that idea is now almost entirely given up From the fact that 
boilers using distilled water fed into them from surface condensers 
are more liable to internal corrosion than other boilers has led to 
the theory that it is the pure water that does the mischief, and 
that a water containing in slight degree a scale forming salt, is to 
he preferred to water which is absolutely pure. 

Whatever may be the truth or falsity of this theory it is a well 
established fact that distilled water has a most pernicious action on 
various metals, especially on lead and iron. 

This action is attributed to its peculiarly property, as compared 
with ordinary water, of dissolving free carbonic acid. 

One of the worst features in connection with internal corrosion 
is that its progress cannot be easily traced on account of the boiler- 
being closed while at work. As it does not usually extend over 
any very great extent of surface the ordinary hydraulic test fails 
to reveal the locality of corroded spots, the hammer test on the 
contrary rarely fails to locate them if the plates are much thinned 
by its action. 

Testing Boilers. — It is the general practice to apply the hy- 
draulic test to all new steam boilers at the place of manufacture, 
and before shipment. The pressure employed in the test is from 
once and a half, to twice the intended working steam pressure. 
This test is only valuable in bringing to notice defects which 
would escape ordinary inspection. It is not to be assumed that it 
in any way assures good workmanship or material, or good design, 
or proper proportions; it simply shows that the boiler being 
tested is able to withstand this pressure without leaking at the 
joints, or distorting the shell to an injurious degree. 

Bad workmanship may often be detected at a glance by an expe- 
rienced person. The material must be judged by the tensile' 
strength and ductility of the sample tested. The design and 



HAMMER TEST. 59 

proportions. are to be judged on constructive grounds, and have 
little or nothing in common with the hydraulic test. 

The great majority of buyers of steam boilers have but little 
knowledge on the subject of tests, and too often conclude that if 
they have a certified copy of a record showing that a particular 
boiler withstood a test of say 150 lbs. that it is a good and safe 
boiler at 75 to 100 pounds steam pressure. If the boiler is a new 
one and by a reputable maker that may be true ; if it has been in 
use and put upon the market as a second-hand boiler it may be 
anything but safe at half the pressure named. 

By the hydraulic test, the braces in a boiler may be broken, 
joints strained so as to make them leak, bolts or pins may be 
sheared off or so distorted as to be of little or no service in resisting 
pressure when steam is on. 

Hammer Test. — The practice of inspecting boilers by sounding 
with a hand hammer is in many respects to be commended. It 
requires some practical experience in order to detect blisters and 
the wasting of plates, by sound alone. The hammer test is 
especially applicable to the thorough inspection of old boilers. 

It frequently happens in making a test that a blow of the hand 
hammer will either distort or it be driven entirely through the 
plate; and it is just here that the superiority of this method of 
testing over or in connection with the hydraulic test, becomes 
fully apparent. The writer once knew a locomotive which had 
been run into the repair shops for some slight repairs, and after- 
wards was subjected to the usual hydraulic test and was found to 
be tight, it was then run into the round-house for service, but 
before it was fired it was accidently discovered by a boy's "fooling" 
around the fire box with a hand hammer that the plates which 
were originally five-sixteenths inch thick had been reduced in 
some places by corrosion to a thickness scarcely more than one- 
sixteenth inch. 

This incident is introduced by w T ay of a digression simply to 
show the value of the hammer test and the insufficiency of a 
hydraulic test in the case of boilers which have been for some 
time in service. 

The location of stays, joints, and boiler fittings all modify and 



60 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

are apt to mislead the inspector if he depends upon sound alone. 

There is a certain spring of the hammer and a clear ring indica- 
tive of sound plates which are wanting in plates much corroded or 
blistered. 

The presence of scale on the inside of the boiler lias a modifying 
action on the sound of the plate. 

When a supposed defect is discovered a hole should be drilled 
through the sheet by which its thickness may be determined as 
well as its condition. 

The literature of boiler explosions is by no means scanty and 
varies anywhere from sound practical experience to the most 
visionary idealism ; but those who have most to do with steam 
boilers, and whose business it is to trace results to causes, are 
singularly unanimous in the opinion that almost without excep- 
tion boiler explosions may be traced directly back to the causes — 
over-pressure and neglect. 



CHAP. VII. 



THE SELECTION OF AN ENGINE. 

There are so many conflicting statements in regard to the 
merits and demerits of the several engines placed in the market 
that one is often confused in judgment, and scarcely knows how 
to proceed in the matter of selection. 

It is easy to advise that, "when you are ready to buy select the 
best engine, for in the long run the best is the cheapest." 
Xo one would pretend to deny this as a general rule, yet there are 
circumstances w T hich so materially modify this rule that it would 
seem to a casual observer to be entirely set aside. There are 
localities in which the price of fuel is so low that it scarcely war- 
rants the doubling of the price on an engine to save it ; and in 
such localities the owners usually want an engine of the very 
simplest construction, hence, they almost invariably select an 
ordinary slide valve engine with a throttling governor. This 
selection is made for several reasons, among which are low first 
cost, simple in detail, remoteness from the manufacturer or from 
repair shops. 

For small powers in which it is desirable that the investment 
be as low as consistent with commercial success, the engine selected 
should be fitted with a common slide valve, this will in general 
apply to all engines having cylinders eight inches or less in 
diameter. 

If upon a thorough canvass of the situation, it then be thought 
advisable to employ an automatic cut-off engine, the next question 
would probably be whether it shall be fitted with a positive, or 
some one of the various " drop " movements now in the market. 

For the smaller sizes, say 8 to 14 inches diameter of cylinder, it 
will perhaps be found most desirable to use an automatic slide 



62 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

cut-off, of which there are now several varieties offered through the 
trade. This style of engine lias the advantage of being low-priced, 
efficient, and economical. 

Small engines are usually required to run at moderately high 
speeds ; there is a very decided advantage in this on the score of 
economy, as a small engine running at a quick speed will be quite 
as efficient as a large engine running at a slow speed, with the 
further advantage that the former will not cost in original outlay 
more than about two-thirds of the latter, while the cost of operat- 
ing will be no greater per indicated horse power. 

Large slide valves have not been found to work satisfactorily for 
any great length of time, and especially in quick moving engines. 
They are still used in marine engines notwithstanding the objec- 
tions urged against them, for the reason that no equally efficient 
substitute is available. 

The slide valve is still used to the almost total exclusion of all 
other kinds in locomotives. It is doubtful whether a better valve 
for that particular use can be devised. It is simple, efficient, and 
readily obeys the action of the link when controlled or adjusted by 
the engineer. For portable engines and the smaller stationary 
engines it leaves little to be desired in point of simplicity. 

One objection to a slide valve is that it cannot readily be made 
to cut off steam at say half-stroke or less without interfering with 
the exhaust. In ordinary practice £ to § seems to be where most 
slide valves cut off as a minimum, perhaps | would represent 
nearer the actual average conditions. 

It can easily be shown that this is very wasteful of steam and 
consequently not economical in fuel; but as there are cases in 
which the loss in fuel is fully gained by other advantages, the 
ordinary slide valve will, in all probability, continue to be used. 

Balancing Slide Yalves. — For very large valves, such as those 
employed in marine engines, some attachment for relieving the 
pressure on the valve face seems almost imperative. This is 
usually accomplished by having an adjustable ring fitted to the 
back of the valve by which an equilibrium is established between 
the valve face and the area of the ring opposite, and which very 
nearly balances the whole valve. 



BALANCING SLIDE VALVES. 63 

There have been many attempts at balancing the ordi nary- 
stationary engine valves, but with only partial success. Almost 
any of the devices offered for this purpose work satisfactorily so 
long as they are new, but they presently become inoperative, if 
not troublesome. 

That some devices should work well longer than others is to be 
expected ; but on the whole it is doubtful whether there are any 
of the so-called balanced valves which work satisfactorily after a 
year's constant service without repair and adjustment. 

The writer has tried several valves of this class and found that 
three months' constant wear without attention or adjustment was 
the average duration of their practical usefulness. There is a 
method of balancing seme times used, which consists of a "bridge" 
over the valve and through which the valve slides ; this •* bridge" 
taking off the pressure from the back of the valve, but in no 
manner interfering with its action, nor is there any liability for a 
steam leak through the back of the valve into the exhaust port. 

The pressure on the back of a valve may be considerable, but 
just how much power is absorbed in overcoming the resistance- 
due to the steam pressure throughout the entire travel of the 
valve cannot be easily determined except by direct experiment 
with the valve of an engine actually at work. There is no doubt 
that the power lost in overcoming this resistance has been greatly 
overestimated, and many devices have been brought out through 
an imperfect knowledge of the actual loss occasioned by the uso 
of an unbalanced valve, and disappointment has often been the 
only reward gained by the inventor and experimenter, who had 
been lead into the belief that at least 25 per cent, of fuel was to 
be saved by balancing the*slide valve. 

The Horizontal Engine commends itself on account of its com- 
pactness, the facility with which it may be secured to its founda- 
tion and the accessibility of its several parts. 

Whether the engine shall have what is known as a box bed, or 
a girder bed, or whether the cylinder shall be overhanging or not 
will depend upon circumstances, this subject is in general, simply 
a matter of opinion or personal preference, and has little to do 
with the actual performance. 



64 HAND BOOK FOB STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Yertical Engines occupy but little ground space and are in 
favor among engineers, especially for small powers ; but this style 
of engine is by no means confined to small powers as it is now and 
has long been a favorite one for marine engines. 

It is also a favorite design for blowing engines, and notwith- 
standing the objections against it, is likely to occupy a permanent 
place in engine design. 

Beam Engines are, when viewed from the commercial stand- 
point, suitable only for very large powers. This is a very expen- 
sive form of engine to construct, and hence should always be fitted 
with the highest class of automatic cut-off mechanism, except 
when it is to be employed as a pumping or blowing engine, in 
which case the valve mechanism will, of course, be adapted for the 
service required. 

The great number of parts and joints required in a beam engine, 
especially when fitted with parallel motion rods, and the excessive 
weight of the completed engine place it at a great disadvantage 
when brought in competition with its more compact, simpler and 
lighter rival, — the horizontal engine. 

A great deal can be said in favor of a beam engine when it 
requires to be of large size. The piston and connections attached 
to the one end of the beam may be exactly balanced by the con- 
necting rod and pumps on the other side, in which case the com- 
bined weight of the beam and connections will be concentrated in 
the center bearings supporting the beam ; this it may be said 
applies only to the engine at rest ; when in motion the forces are 
differently distributed, for example — when the piston is ascending 
there is a tendency to lift the beam from its center at the beginning 
and during the continuance of the stroke, this tendency is reversed 
during the downward movement, in either case all the strains are 
transmitted directly to the foundations. 

A cast-iron cylinder of large dimensions has a tendency to 
flatten or to become oval when laid down on its side. This makes 
fitting a j)iston steam tight a very difficult operation unless some 
provision be made for keeping it round ; in this respect a vertical 
cylinder has a very decided advantage, for it can be bored while 



HIGH SPEKD ENGINES. ' * r< 65 

in a vertical position and thus insure its being perfectly cylindrical 
when fixed to the bed plate. 

High Speed Engines,— The general tendency seems now to be 
in the direction of a horizontal engine with a stroke of medium 
length, having a rapid piston speed, and a rapid- rotation, of crank 
shaft, rather than a longer stroke with a less rate of revolution. 
This rapid movement of piston and crank shaft permits the use of 
small fly wheels and driving pulleys, and thus very materially 
reduces the cost of an engine for a given power. 

To illustrate this, it maybe said that a 16x48 inch engine using 
steam at 80 pounds pressure and cutting off i stroke, running at 
the rate of 60 revolutions per minute, may be replaced by an engine 
having a 13 x 24 inch cylinder, running at the rate of 200 strokes 
per minute, the pressure of steam and point of cutting off remain- 
ing the same, both engines being non-condensing, and represent- 
ing the best examples of their kind. The difference between 60 
and 200 revolutions per minute in millwright work is very great, 
but there is a constantly growing demand for an engine which 
shall meet such a requirement whenever it shall present itself; 
by this is not to be understood an engine which shall be used at 
either speed indiscriminately, but rather a type of engine which 
shall be economical in fuel, and shall be of a kind by which the 
rate of revolution may be such as to suit the millwrights work 
without loss of economy in working, and without excessive outlay 
for the engine itself in proportion to power developed. 

Slow speed engines are designed and built from a standpoint 
entirely different from that of high speed engines ; in the former 
case the reciprocating parts are made as light as possible consistent 
with safety. The fly wheel is large in diameter and made with a 
very heavy rim, especially is this the case with automatic cut-off 
engines of long stroke and slow revolution of crank sh^ft. 

In high speed engines the reciprocating parts are often of great 
weight in order to insure the utmost smoothness of running. The 
piston and cross-head are made of unusual w r eight that at the 
beginning of the stroke they may require a large part of the steam 
pressure to set them in motion, this absorbing of power at the 
beginning of the stroke is for the purpose of temporarily storing it 
—5 



66 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

up in the reciprocating parts that it may be given off at the later 
portions of the stroke by imparting their momentum to the crank ; 
thus at the beginning of the stroke these reciprocating parts act as 
a temporary resistence, but once in motion they tend by their 
inertia to equalize the pressure on the crank pin, and so produce 
not only smooth running, but a very uniform motion. 

Results to be obtained in practice,— The best automatic non- 
condensing engines furnish an indicated horse power for about 
three pounds of good coal depending somewhat upon the fitness 
of the engine for the work and the quality of the coal. With a 
condenser attached a consumption as low as two pounds has been 
reported, but this is an exceptional result, 2} pounds may be 
quoted as good practice. The larger the engine the better the 
showing as compared with smaller engines. 

For ordinary slide valve engines the coal burned per indicated 
horse-power will vary from 9 to 12 pounds, for the sake of illustra- 
tion w r e will say 10 pounds, and that the engine is of such size as 
would require for a years run, $3,000 worth of coal, now an ordi- 
nary adjustable cut-off engine with throttling governor ought to 
save at least half that amount of coal or say $1500 per year ; if the 
best automatic engine were employed tiling 2 J pounds of coal per 
horsepower, a further saving of $750 per year could be effected, 
or between the two extremes $2250 per year in saving of coal 
without interfering in any way with the power, with the excep- 
tion perhaps that the automatic engine will furnish a better power 
than the former engine. It is easy to see that, it is true economy 
to buy the best engine and pay the extra cost of construction if the 
saving of fuel is an element entering into the question of selection. 

The cost of an engine for any particular service is always to 
be taken into consideration, for it is possible to contract for a cer- 
tain saving of coal at too high a price, not simply when paid out 
as the original purchase money, but with this economy of fuel the 
purchaser may have many vexatious and damaging delays caused 
by the breaking of the automatic mechanism of the engine. All 
such delays which would not have occurred to an ordinary or 
simpler engine, are to be charged against any saving credited to 



LOCATION OF ENGINE. 67 

the engine which failed in producing a regular and constant 
power. Take a flouring mill for example, producing 400 barrels per 
day, it is easy to see how a single days stoppage would interfere 
with the trade and shipment by the proprietors, yet it would 
require a very small break in an engine that would require less 
than a day for repairs. 

This does not argue against high grade engines, but the pur- 
chaser should be certain that the engine when once on its founda- 
tions shall be as free from dangers of this kind as any other engine 
of similar economy. 

There are engines which from their peculiar construction appear 
to be very complex and this objection is often urged against them, 
while the fact is the complexity is apparent rather than real. 
Take the Corliss engine for example, it is doubtful whether there 
is another automatic cut-off engine in successful use in this or any 
other country which has cost less for repairs during the last ten or 
twenty years. It is true it contains a great many separate pieces 
in the valve mechanism, but the pieces themselves are simple, 
durable, easily accessable, and always in sight. These several 
parts are not liable to excessive wear, but such as there is can be 
readily adjusted. 

The engines to be preferred are those in which the valve adjust- 
ing mechanism is outside of the steam chest and which is in plain 
sight at all times when the engine is in motion. 

Location of Engine. — This will depend upon circumstances, 
but it is far from true economy to place an engine in a dark cellar 
or in some inconvenient place above ground. The engine as the 
prime mover should have all the care and attention which 
may be needed to insure regular and efficient working. 

Machinery in the dark is almost sure to be neglected. If the 
design of the building or the nature of the business is such that 
the engine must be located underground there should be some 
provision for letting in the daylight, the extra expense incurred 
will soon be saved by the order, cleanliness, and fewer repairs 
required, following neglect. 

The engine should always be close to, but not in the boiler 
room. 



68l HAND BOOK FOK STEAM ENOIXEEKS. 

Many a high-priced engine has had its days of usefulness, short- 
ened by the abrasive action of fine ashes and coal dust coming in 
contact with the wearing surfaces. There should always be a wall 
or tight partition between the engine and fire room. 

The foundations for an engine should be large and deep. Too 
many manufacturers in marking dimensions on foundation draw- 
ings for engines, make them altogether too shallow. The stability 
of an engine depends more, on the depth than on the breadth of 
the foundations. Stone should be used for foundations rather 
than brick, but if the latter must be used they should be hard 
burned and laid in a good cement rather than a lime mortar. If the 
bottom of the pit dug for the engine foundation be wet, or the soil 
uncertain in its stability, it is a good plan to make a solid concrete 
block about a foot and a half thick, on which the foundation may 
be continued to the top. If such a concrete block be made with 
the right kind of cement it will be almost as hard and solid as a 
whole stone. 

The most economical engine is the one in which high pressure 
steam can be used during such portion of the stroke as may be 
necessary, then quickly cut off by a valve which shall not inter- 
fere with the exhaust at the opposite end of the cylinder, and 
allow the steam to expand in the cylinder to a pressure which 
shall not fall below that necessary to overcome the back pressure 
on the piston. In general, the most successful cut-off engines use 
the boiler pressure for a distance of one-fifth to three-eighths of 
the stroke from the beginning, at this point the steam is cut off 
and allowed to expand throughout the balance of the stroke. 

The gain by expansion consists in the admission of steam at a 
pressure^ much above the average required to do the work, and 
allowing it to follow but a small portion of the stroke then expand- 
ing to a lower than the average pressure at the end of the stroke. 
The mean effective pressure on the piston is that by which the 
power of the engine is measured, hence it follows that the higher 
economy is to be reached, other things being equal, where the 
mean effective pressure on the piston is highest when compared 
with the terminal pressure, or the pressure at the end of the 



TICK SELECTION OF AN ENGINE, 



69 



stroke. In order to get this, a high initial pressure is used; the 
steam follows as short a distance as possible to keep the motion 
regular under a load, and then expanding down to as near the 
atmospheric pressure as possible. 

The following table exhibits at a glance the performance of a 
non-condensing engine cutting off at different portions of the 
stroke. The initial pressure of steam being in each case 80 pounds 
per square inch. 





CUT-OFF IN 1\ 


VftTS OF 


■ TUB STROKE. 




i 

10 


2 
10 


3 

10 


4 
10 


5 
10 


Mean effective pressure, 


18 


35 


48 


57 


65 


Terminal pressure. 


11 


20 


30 


39 


48 


Pounds water per h'r per H. P. 


20 


21 


22 


23 


25 



Fractions are omitted in the above table and the nearest whole 
number given. 

In general, it may be said the higher the rate of expansion, the 
greater the economy, but there are modifying influences which 
are to be taken into account. 

If expansion be carried to an extreme degree the engine will 
require to be much.. larger than if the expansion were less, to get 
the same indicated horse power. In making a larger cylinder the 
whole engine would require to be larger and the cost would he 
much greater also. Builders of automatic cut-off engines are now 
pretty well agreed on recommending an engine which shall use 
steam from 75 to 80 pounds and follow one-fourth of the stroke. 

An efficient steam jacket will add to the economy of the engine 
especially if the cylinder is long stroke and the revolutions of the 
crank slow. This has already been referred to in another chap- 
ter, see page 19. 

The objection to using a high initial pressure of steam follow- 
ing but a short distance, and expanding to a low terminal 
pressure is, for single cylinder engines, the very great variation in 
the strain brought upon the moving mechanism, and especially 



70 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

on the crank-pin ; it also necessitates a larger cylinder, and greater 
strength in the framing as well as the moving parts of the engine. 

Condensation of Steam. — In order to attain the highest econ- 
omy in a steam engine a condenser should be attached, especially 
if the cylinder be of large diameter and the average or terminal 
pressure be low. 

Condensers. — The earliest forms of the steam engine made use 
of the cylinder of the engine as a chamber for the condensing of 
the steam ; this was, of course, a great mistake, and operated 
against its economy. By using a separate vessel for condensation 
it is said that Watt doubled the power of the engine, and since 
his day it has been the universal practice to so construct engines 
and condensers. 

Without being exact, it requires about twenty-five times as 
much water to successfully operate a jet condensor as that evap- 
orated in the boilers in the generation of steam to supply the 
engine. 

So long as there are no leaky joints between the engine cylinder 
and the condenser it matters little what may be the distance 
between them, still, it is on the whole, better to have them close 
together. It is necessary to exclude air from the condenser at all 
times because it interferes with the formation and maintainance 
of a vacuum, and it is for this reason that unnecessary joints 
between the cylinder and the condenser are to be avoided. 

The injection pipes should be large, and as free from abrupt 
turns as possible. In regulating the supply of water to the con- 
denser, a cock is to be preferred to an ordinary globe valve. 

The condensing chamber may be from one-third to one-half the 
area of the cylinder, and in regard to design, it may be that which 
seems best suited to the local conditions likely to affect it; such 
for example, as being located below the engine room floor, or in a 
basement removed from the engine room, or perhaps on the same 
floor with the engine ; these will have more or less influence in 
determining the special form it shall have. 

The object of a condenser attached to an engine is to reduce the 
back pressure, or that pressure opposed to the movement of the 



aii; ruAirs. 71 

piston when driven by the steam flowing into the cylinder from 
the boiler. 

Condensers are rarely attached to other engine's than those 
fitted with a cut-off; the expansion of steam in the cylinder could 
not in an ordinary non-condensing engine be reduced to a point 
much below five pounds per square inch above the atmosphere, 
but with a condenser it may be carried to twelve or thirteen 
pounds below it. It is apparent, therefore, that the gain by the 
use of a condenser, especially in connection with pistons of large 
area, is very considerable. 

The condenser should be kept at as low a temperature as possi- 
ble, but this should not be brought about by overloading the air 
pump with w^ater. It is better to lose a pound or two of vacuum 
than impose upon the engine the extra work required to expel 
perhaps twice as much injection water as may otherwise be nec- 
essary to give a fair vacuum. The temperature of the hot well is 
perhaps the best guide for the engineer, which, during the sum- 
mer months may be about 120° Fahr.; in the winter months it 
may be low T er, but just how much will suggest itself to the careful 
engineer who will adjust the supply so that a good vacuum may 
be maintained with, the least load upon the engine. 

The two limits to the temperature of the hot well of the con- 
denser are, (1) the boiling point of water in a vacuum and 
(2) the overloading of the air pump. In regard to the lead upon 
the latter the engineer must determine this for himself by the 
working of the engine. 

A good jet condenser ought to yield a vacuum of 26 inches (13 
pounds) at all times. Sometimes this may be exceeded, but in 
general it is regarded as good practice. 

The less injection used the hotter will be the escaping water, but 
in no case ought it to greatly exceed 120°, and when it can eco- 
nomically be brought below this it ought to be done. If the feed 
water for the boiler is taken direct from the hot well it will be 
found more economical to heat it on its way to the boiler by 
passing it through the escaping gases from the furnace than to 
increase the temperature of the condenser. 

Air Pumps may be arranged to be either single or double 



i'l HAND- BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

acting ; }:>erhaps most of them are single acting, in which case the 
capacity may be one-fifth that of the cylinder. 

Double acting pumps should be about one-eighth the capacity 
of the cylinder ; a very common practice is to make them, when 
not driven directly from the piston of the engine, one-half the 
diameter and one-half the stroke of the engine. 

Surface Condensers are not often used in connection with 
stationery engines. The few that are in use are confined mainly 
to the sea coast, or such other localities as cannot furnish w r ater 
sufficiently pure for the economical generation of steam. The 
process of surface condensation consists in having a large receiving 
vessel into .which the steam from the engine is exhausted, this 
vessel usually has an outer and inner chamber, the latter being 
fitted with as many small brass or copper tubes as it will contain ; 
these tubes are generally f- inch in diameter. The usual practice 
is to exhaust the steam in the outer chamber and outside of the 
tubes and force a current of cold water through the tubes ; in this 
w T ay the heat is absorbed from the steam by contact wiih the cold 
metallic surface presented by the tubes, and which is maintained 
at a low temperature by the flow of cold water through them. 

The object sought by this device is to condense the steam fur- 
nished by the boilers after its use in the engine, and return it 
again to the boilers, and so use the same water over and over again. 
This pure feed w r ater is intended to prevent the formation of scale 
in steam boilers and thus secure an economy of fuel not easily 
attained by other methods. 

Steamships are now rarely fitted with other than surface con- 
densers, and although very great benefit has been derived by the 
use of a surface over a jet condenser it has brought with it evils 
of a very serious nature, the principal one being a certain corro- 
sive action that has been found to attack the internal surfaces 
of iron boilers using condensed water. 

There has been so far no satisfactory explanation for this corro- 
sive action ; among other theories in regard to it is that certain 
fatty matter used in lubricating the valves and piston is carried 
over with the exhaust steam and so passes into the boiler with the 
feed water ; it is there decomposed and acts on the iron as a 



GOVERNOR. - To 

chemical solvent. The correctness of this theory lias never "been 
proven, and is gradually losing ground. 

Galvanic action has also been suggested as accounting for the 
corrosion though it has now but few adherents. 

The cause of this singular and rapid corrosion of steam boilers 
when used in connection with surface condensers is not thoroughly 
understood. 

Governor • — Any automatic device by which the speed of an 
engine is controlled may properly be called a governor. There 
are now two distinct methods by which the steam supplied to an 
engine is thus brought under control. The first is usually applied 
to slide valve engines having a fixed cut-off, and consists in the 
adjustment of a valve by which the } yrC88Ur ^ of steam in the 
cylinder is increased or diminished in order to maintain a constant 
rate of revolution with a variable load. The second device con- 
sists in a mechanism by which the whole boiler pressure is 
admitted to the cylinder which is allowed to follow the piston to 
such portion of the stroke as will maintain a regular rate of revo- 
lution ; the steam is then suddenly cut off at each half revolution 
of the engine and thus furnishing a greater or less volume of steam 
at a constant pressure. 

Neither of these two varieties of governors will act until a 
change in the rate of revolution of the engine occurs, and this 
change will either admit more or less steam as it is faster or slower 
than that for which the governor is adjusted. 

The commonest form of a governor consists of a vertical shaft 
to which are hinged two arms containing at their lower ends a 
ball of cast iron ; as the shaft revolves the balls are carried out- 
ward by the action of what is commonly called centrifugal force, 
the greater the rate of revolution the further will the balls be 
carried outward, advantage is taken of this property to regulate 
the admission of steam to the engine. 

The action of the balls and that of the valve include two dis- 
tinct principles and should be considered separately ; an excellent 
valve may be manipulated by an indifferent governor and so 
produce unsatisfactory results : on the other hand, the governor 
mechanism may be satisfactory in its operation, but being con- 



74 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

nected with a valve not properly balanced, is likely to cause a 
variable rate of revolution in the engine. 

The writer is somewhat acquainted with the history of the 
growth of several governors now in good repute, and it seems to 
be inseparable from their final completion, that a long and vexa- 
tious period of practical experimenting with each size shall 
intervene between the original design and a reliable marketable 
product. This has had the effect to concentrate the manufacture 
of governors in the hands of a few persons who by the aid of 
special machines and careful adjustment of details to requirements 
have produced governors which are not surpassed in any country. 

Fly-Wheel. — The object in attaching a fly-wheel to an engine is 
to act as a moderator of speed. The action of the steam in the 
cylinder is variable throughout the stroke, against which the 
revolution of a heavy wheel acts as a constant resistance, and 
limits the variations in speed by absorbing the surplus power of 
the first portion of the stroke, and giving it out during the latter 
portion. The fly-wheel is simply a reservoir of power, it neither 
creates nor destroys it, and the only reason w r hy it is attached to 
an engine is simply to regulate the speed between certain permit- 
ted variations which are necessary to cause the governor to act, 
and to equalize the rate of revolution for all portions of the 
stroke, thus converting a variable reciprocating power into a 
constant rotary one. 

It is considered good practice to make the diameter of the fly- 
wheel four times the length of the stroke for ordinary engines, 
in which the stroke is equal to twice the diameter of the cylinder. 
This may be taken as a fair proportion in engine building, and 
furnishes a wheel sufficiently large to equalize the strain, and 
reduce any variation in speed to within very narrow limits if the 
engine is supplied with a proper governor. 

The greater the number of revolutions at which the engine 
runs the smaller in diameter may be the fly-wheel, and it may 
also be largely reduced in weight for engines developing the same 
power. 

Horse-Poiver. — By this term is meant 33,000 pounds raised one 



HORSE POWER. 75 

foot high in one minute. The horse power of an engine may be 
found by multiplying the area of the piston in square inches, 
by the average pressure throughout the stroke, this will give the 
total pressure on the piston ; multiply this total pressure by the 
length of the stroke of the piston in feet, this will give the work 
done in one stroke of the piston ; multiply this product by the 
number of strokes the piston makes per minute, which will give 
the total work done by the steam in one minute ; to get the horse 
power divide this last product by 33,000. 

From this deduct say 20 per cent, for various losses, such as 
friction, condensation, leakage, etc. 



CHAP. VIII. 

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF A 
STEAM ENGINE. 

It is to be supposed to begin with that the engine is correctly 
designed and well made, and that after a suitable selection of an 
engine, for the work to be doue nothing now remains except a 
proper care and management. 

Lubrication. — The first and all important thing in regard to 
keeping an engine in good working order is to see that it is prop- 
erly lubricated. This does not imply, neither is it intended to 
encourage the use of oil to excess ; all that is needed is simply a 
film of oil between the wearing surfaces. It is marvelous how 
small a quantity of oil is required when of good quality and con- 
tinuously applied. There are several self-feeding lubricators in 
the market which have been tested for years and are a pronounced 
success; these include crank-pin oilers in which the oscillatory 
motion of the oil makes a very efficient self feeding device, the 
flow being regulated by means of an adjustable opening to the 
crank-pin, or in the adjustment of a valve by which its lift is 
regulated by each throw of the crank ; and in others by a con- 
tinual flow throngh a suitable tube containing a wick or other 
porous substance. For stationary engines it is desirable that the 
main body of the oiler be made of glass that the flow of oil may be 
closely watched and adjusted accordingly. 

For the reciprocating and rotary parts of the engine, a modifica- 
tion of the above mentioned oilers may be used. They are of 
various patterns and devices and many of them very good. It is 
also a good plan to have some device by which the cross-head at 
each end of each stroke will take up and carry with it a certain 



THE SLIDE VALVE. 77 

amount of oil ; for the lower half of the slide this is not difficult 
to arrange, for the upper side an automatic feeder placed in the 
middle of the slides will provide ample lubrication. 

For oiling the main bearing there should be two separate devices, 
one an automatic glass oiler, and in addition, a large tallow cup 
attached to the cap of the bearing. This cup should be filled with 
tallow mixed with powdered plumbago ; the openings from the 
bottom of the cup to the shaft should be not less than quarter-inch 
for small engines, and three-eighths to half-inch for larger ones ; 
so long as the main bearing runs cool the tallow will remain in 
the cap unmelted, but if heating begins the tallow will melt and 
run down on the surface of the revolving shaft and thus provide 
an efficient remedy when needed. 

For oiling the valves and piston a self-feeding lubricator should 
be attached to the steam pipe, this by a continuous flow of oil will 
be found not only satisfactory in its practical working but econom- 
ical in the use of oil. 

In selecting an oil for an engine it is in general better to use a 
mineral rather than an animal oil, especially for use in the valve 
chest and cylinder. The objection to an animal oil, and especially 
to tallow or suet is that it decomposes by the action of the heat, 
often coating the surface of the steam chest, the piston ends 
and the cylinder heads with a deposit of hard fatty matter, or 
forms into small balls not unlike shoemaker's wax. There is no 
such decomposition and formation in connection with mineral oils 
which may now be had of uniform quality and consistency, 
and at much lower prices than animal oils. 

The Slide Talve should be kept properly set and should be 
examined occasionally to see that the face and seat are in good 
condition. So long as this is the case, the valve mechanism and 
the valve itself must be let alone, and not tampered with. It is a 
part of the manufacturers business to set the valve and properly 
fit and adjust the valve connections before the engine leaves the 
shop ; the eccentric should then be keyed to the shaft and not 
held by a set screw, as the latter is likely to work loose and make 
lots of trouble. If the eccentric is keyed to the shaft the only 
adjustment necessary in the valve connection is to take up the 



78 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

wear of the joints, this is easily done and will not require doing 
oftener than once or twice a year, depending on the care the 
engine receives. 

Should the eccentric be fastened by means of a set screw 
instead of a key, and it should work loose after running for some 
time, it may easily be brought back to the original position by 
taking off the steam chest cover and after placing the engine on a 
dead center, move the eccentric around the shaft until the valve 
is just about to open the port ; care being taken that the center 
line of the eccentric "leads" the crank-pin in the direction in 
which the engine is to run if the connections are so made, if 
not, then the eccentric must be moved around on the opposite 
side of the shaft. When this adjustment is made, secure the 
eccentric by tightening the set screw ; then turn the engine over 
to the other dead center and ascertain how near the valve is open 
on that side; whatever difference there may be can easily be 
adjusted by means of the nuts on either side of the valve or at the 
eccentric if the adjustment is to be made there. 

After equalizing the opening of the valve for the two dead 
centers the eccentric is to be permanently fixed to the shaft. A 
mark should be affixed to both the eccentric and the shaft when 
in proper position, so that in the event of any future slippage it 
may be brought back to the same place without having to re-set 
the valve. "When a key is used instead of a set screw, such a 
thing as slippage of the eccenteic becomes impossible, and an 
engine cannot be said to be completed until that is done. 

Lead is the amount of opening which a valve lias when it is just 
beginning the stroke. 

It is not now customary to give engines lead except in special 
instances when it is found to be absolutely necessary. The 
exhaust side of the valve is so x>roportioned that the " exhaust " 
or the steam remaining in the cylinder is cushioned up to pressure 
at the beginning of the next stroke. It is claimed that it effects a 
greater saving of steam than if there were no cushion and the 
valve had lead. Exact data are wanting on this point, but so far 
the prevailingAopinion and practice is in -favor of cushioning. 




THE PISTON PACKING. 79 

The Piston Packing 1 will need looking after occasionally to see 
that it does not gum up and stick fast, which it is very likely to do> 
when the cylinder is lubricated with tallow or animal oil. 

The rings should fit the cylinder loosely and should be under as 
little tension as possible and insure perfect contact. If the rings 
are set out too tight they are liable to scratch or cut the cylinder ; 
if too loose the steam will blow through from one end of the 
cylinder, past the piston, and into the other. In adjusting the 
springs in the piston care must be exercised that the adjustments 
are such as will keep the piston rod exactly central, to prevent 
springing the rod or causing excessive wear on the stuffing box. 

There are several packings which do not require this adjustment,, 
the rings being narrow and either expanding by their own ten- 
sion or by means of springs underneath. The only thing to be 
done with such a packing is to keep it clean, and when lubricated 
with a mineral oil this is not a difficult matter. 

Steam packages are also largely used, their use has not become 
so general as spring packings, though in some localities they are 
extensively used, such a packing possesses several good talking 
points. With this style of packing the only thing required is to 
see that it is kept clean, and the openings free for the admission 
of the steam. 

The Stuffing Boxes whether for the piston or valve stems need 
to be looked after carefully, and to prevent leaking will require 
tightening from time to time. There are several kinds of ready- 
made packings in the market containing rubber, canvas, soap- 
stone, asbestos and other substances which form the basis of a good 
durable packing. These can be had in sizes suitable for all ordi- 
nary purposes, and their use is recommended. 

In the absence of any of these, a packing made of clean manilla 
or hemp fibre will serve a useful purpose. Formerly it was the 
only substance used, but is being gradually superceded by the 
other kinds mentioned above. 

In packing the small and delicate parts such as a governor stem, 
a good packing is made by Raiting together three or more strands 
of cotton candle-wick. This is soft, pliable, free from anything 



80 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

like grit, and will not get hard until soaked with grease and baked 
into a brittle fibreless substance not easily described. 

Crank-Pins. — There are few things more troublesome to an 
engineer than a hot crank-pin, and it is sometimes very difficult to 
get at the real reason wdiy it heats. Among the principal reasons 
for heating are : the main shaft is not " square " with the engine, 
or, that the pin is not properly fitted to the crank, or perhaps it is 
too small in diameter, defects which are to be remedied as soon as 
practicable. Heating is often caused by the boxes being keyed too 
tightly, or by insufficient lubrication. 

There are now several good self-feeding lubricators in the market 
which will supply the oil to a crank-pin continuously, these are 
recommended rather than the old style of oil cup which was not 
only uncertain but doubtful in its action. Many troublesome 
crank-pins have been cured of heating by this simple matter of 
constant lubrication. 

When the crank-pin is rather small for the engine, and the load 
variable, there is a possibility of having a hot pin at any time ; it is 
advisable to have ready some simple and effective expedient to be 
applied when it does occur; for this there is perhaps nothing 
better and safer than a mixture of good lard oil and sulphur. 

Connecting Rod Brasses.— In quick running engines the brasses 
should be fitted metal to metal, or if this is not desirable, several 
strips of tin or sheet brass should be inserted between them and 
then keyed up tight. This gives a rigidity to a joint which is 
difficult to secure wdien the brasses have a certain amount of play 
in the strap. 

It is a common practice to bore the brasses slightly larger than 
the pin, so that when fitted to it the hole shall be slightly oval 
and thus permit a freer lubrication than is secured by a close fit 
around the whole circumference. 

Knocking. — There are several causes which, combined or singly, 
tend to produce knocking in steam engines. 

In most cases the difficulty will be found to be in the connecting 
rod brasses, but whether in the crank-pin end, or at the cross-head 



KNOCKING. 81 

is not easily determined in all cases. A very slight motion will 
often produce a very disagreeable noise, the remedy is in most 
cases very simple, and consists in simply tightening the brasses by 
means of the key or other device that may have been provided 
for their adjustment. In adjusting a key it is the common prac- 
tice to drive it down as far as it will go, marking with a knife 
blade the upper edge of the strap, then drive the key back until it 
is loose, after which drive it down again until the line scratched 
on the key is within J or J of an inch of the top of the strap. The 
size of the strap joint, and the judgment of the person in charge 
must decide the best distance. This may be done at both ends of 
the connecting rod. On starting the engine, the cross-head and 
crank-pins must be carefully watched, and upon the slightest 
indication of heating, the engine should be stopped and the key 
driven back a little further. A slight warmth is not particularly 
objectionable, and w T ill as a general thing correct itself after a short 
run. 

Knocking is sometimes occasioned by a misfit either in the 
piston or the cross-head, and the piston-rod. These connections 
should be carefully examined, and under no circumstances should 
lost motion be permitted at either end of the piston-rod. 

If the means of securing are such that the person in charge can 
properly fasten the piston to the rod, he should see that it is kept 
tight, if not, then it should be sent to the repair shop at once, as 
there is no telling when an accident is likely to overtake an engine 
with a loose piston. 

The connection between the piston-rod and cross-head is usually 
fitted with a key and furnishes a ready means of tightening the 
joint, if proper allowance has been made for the draft of the key. 
In case there has not, the piston-rod and cross-head should be 
filed out so that the draft of the key will insure a good tight joint 
when driven down. 

The main bearing should be examined and if there should be 
too much lateral movement of the shaft, the side brasses should 
then be adj usted until the shaft turns - free, but has no motion 
other than a rotary one. The cap to the main bearing should also 
be carefully examined, as it may need screwing down and thus 
-6 



82 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

prevent an upward movement of the shaft at each stroke, this 
applies more particularly to quick running engines. 

Engines which have been in use for some time are likely to 
have a knock caused by the piston striking the head. This is 
brought about by having a very small clearance in the cylinder 
and in not providing by suitable liners for the wear of the con- 
necting rod brasses. 

In a case of this kind, liners should be inserted behind the 
brasses in the connecting rod, or new brasses put in which Avill 
restore the piston to its original position. 

Knocking may be caused by defects in the construction of the 
engine, such for example as not being in line, the crank-pin not 
at right angles to the crank, the shaft may be out of line, etc. 

Whenever the cause is one in which it can be shown that it is a 
constructive defect, there is but one remedy, and that is the 
replacing of that part, or the assembling of the whole untii per- 
fect truth is had in alignment of all the parts. 

This may or may not require the services of an expert, but all 
improperly fitting pieces should be replaced by new ones, as a 
safe-guard against accident which is likely sooner or later to over- 
take badly fitting pieces. 

If the boiler is furnishing wet steam or priming so as to force 
water into the steam pipe it will collect in the cylinder and will 
not only cause knocking, but on account of its being practically 
incompressible there is danger of knocking out a cylinder-head, 
bending the piston-rod, or doing other damage to the engine. The 
cylinder cocks should be opened to drain any collected water 
away from the cylinder. 

Steam Jackets. — In order to secure the advantage of steam-jack- 
eting it is not sufficient to merely place around the cylinder a 
casing which may contain steam ; care must be taken that this 
jacket always does contain steam. 

In other words, means must be provided for keeping the jacket 
clear of water and air. 

Too many jackets are "steam" jackets only in name, and hence 
the contradictory testimony which has arisen regarding their 
action. Few but those who have actually tried it, fully appreciate 



KEPA1RS. 83 

how soon a jacket may be rendered ineffective by the accumulation 
of air and water. 

Repairs. — Whenever it is necessary to make repairs the work 
should be done at once, oftentimes a single days delay will 
increase the extent and cost four-fold. If an engine is properly 
designed and built the repairs required ought to be very trivial 
for the first few years it is run if it has had proper care. It may 
be said in reply to this "true, but accidents will happen in spite of 
every care and precaution. " That accidents do occur is true 
enough, that they occur in spite of every care and precaution 
is not true. In almost every case accidents may be traced directly 
back to either a want of care, negligence, or to a mistake. 

Fitting Side- Valves. — The practice of fitting a slide-valve to its 
seat by grinding both together with oil and emery is wrong and 
should never be resorted to. The proper way to fit the surfaces is 
by scraping, this insures a more accurate bearing to begin with, 
and will also be entirely free from the fine grains of emery which 
find their way and become imbeded in the pores of the casting 
and are thus liable to cut the valve face and destroy its accuracy. 
The scraping of the valve and seat has a beneficial effect by causing 
the removal of the fine particles of iron which are loosened by the 
action of the cutting tool in the planing machine, and which 
ought to be fully removed before the engine leaves the manufac- 
turers hands. 

Aside from this it is doubtful whether the scraping amounts to 
anything practically, for the reason that the cylinder and valve 
are fitted cold and their relative positions are distorted by the 
action of the heat of the steam, once the engine is in use. The 
scraping which simply renders the valve face and seat smooth 
and hard is all that is sufficient to begin with, and may be 
re-scraped after the valve has been in use a few days, should it be 
found necessary ; which will not often be the case in small and 
ordinary sized engines. 

Eccentric Straps are likely to need repairs as soon as anything 
about an engine. They should be carefully watched at all times. 



84 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

If they are likely to run hot, it is also probable there is more or 
less abrasion or cutting going on, if so, and prompt measures are 
not taken to arrest it, they are likely to cut fast to the eccentric 
and a breakage is sure to occur. 

When the straps begin to heat, the bolts should be slackened a 
little and at night or perhaps at noon, the straps should be taken 
off and all cuttings carefully removed with a scraper, (not with a 
tile) the rough surfaces on the eccentric should be removed in the 
same manner. 

The straps should be run loose for a few days, gradually tighten- 
ing as a good wearing surface is obtained. 

The Main Bearing, if neglected, is a very troublesome journal 
to keep in order. The repairs generally needed are those which 
attend overheating and cutting. The shaft, whenever possible, 
should be lifted out of the bearing and both the shaft, bottom of 
main bearing and side boxes carefully scraped and made perfectly 
smooth. It sometimes occurs that small beads of metal project 
ab6ve the surface of the shaft which are often so hard that 
neither a scraper nor file will remove them, chipping is then 
resorted to and the fitting completed with a file and fine emery 
cloth. 

Governor. — It not infrequently occurs that after an ordinary 
throttling engine has been used a few years, that the speed 
becomes variable to such a degree that it interferes with the 
proper running of the machinery. This occurrence can generally 
be traced directly to the governor. "When it does occur the gov- 
ernor should be taken apart and thoroughly examined ; if the 
needed repairs are such as can easily be made in an ordinary 
repair shop they should be made at once, if not, a new governor 
should be purchased. The price of governors is now so low that 
it is better and more economical to buy a new one than lose the 
time and pay the bills for repairing an old one. 

Automatic Engines. — In the care and management of this class 
of engines it is difficult to say just what particular attention they 
• need, owing to the variety of styles and the peculiarities of each. 



AUTOMATIC ENC4INE. 85 

As a rule, however, they require first, to be kept well oiled ; sec- 
ond, to be kept clean; third, to be kept well packed; and fourth, 
to be let alone nights and Sundays. 

There is little doubt that there has been more direct loss result- 
ing from a ceaseless tinkering with an engine than results from 
the legitimate wear and tear to which the engine is subjected. 
The writer does not wish to be understood as saying that builders 
of this class of engines are infallible ; it might be difhult to prove 
any such assertion in case it was made, but it may be said with 
truth that the engines of this class now in the market are care- 
fully designed, well proportioned, of good materials and work- 
manship, and as examples of mechanism are entitled to take very 
high rank. 

The writer knows of several engines of this class which have 
not cost their owners for repairs so much as rive dollars in Ave 
years' constant use. 

A manufacturer writes thus, to to the builder of his engine: 
"The engine which you furnished us (16x30) has been in con- 
stant use for more than four years, running at 132 revolutions 
per minute, sometimes as auxiliary to water power and some- 
times at its full power. It has cost us nothing for repairs. " 

It is essential to the economical working of these engines that 
the cut-off mechanism be in good order and properly adjusted. 
Whenever the valves need re-setting the final adjustments should 
be made with a load on the engine, and with the indicator 
attached to the cylinder, the valves being set by the card rather 
than by 1 he eye. No general rule can be given for setting the 
valves as the practice varies with the size and speed of the engine, 
nor is any rule needed, for the indicator will furnish all the data 
required. The adjustments may then be made so as to secure 
prompt admission, sharp cut-off, prompt release, and the proper 
compression. 



CHAP. IX. 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 

In the preparation of this chapter it was thought best to com- 
bine the subjects of selection and management in the same article 
instead of separating them as in the preceding chapters. This 
necessitated in some cases a repetition of what had already been 
expressed. One of the principal objects in writing this book was 
to furnish farmers and others who have occasion to use portable 
engines a practical guide to assist them in care and management. 

Selection. — In the selection of a portable engine preference 
should be given the one which combines in the highest degree: — 
good proportions, simplicity of detail, compactness, strength, 
lightness, good workmanship, interchangeability of parts, and 
affording the readiest facility for examination, cleaning and 
repairs. 

Efficiency and durability may be combined with neatness and 
symmetry of form. It does not always occur that these are 
brought into one harmonious relationship. Between pleasing the 
eye merely, and doing good work, the latter is, of course, to be 
preferred. 

Boilers. — By far the greater number of portable engines are 
supplied with horizontal lire-box boilers. This style of boiler is 
quite a favorite one with most manufacturers because it offers at 
once a convenient support for the engine, a good distribution of 
weight on the wheels, large fire-box capacity, good circulation, 
ample steam room, and has good steaming capacity with ordinary 
fuels. 

The Materials of which the boiler is made may be either iron 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 87 

or steel. In case steel should be used it should be no thinner 
than if the boiler were made of wrought iron ; one-quarter inch 
plates are commonly used for this purpose. The tensile strength 
of the plates when made of iron should not be less than 45,000 
pounds per square inch of section. The flange sheets will per- 
haps average not less than 60,000 pounds tensile strength. 

Riveting. — It is not customary to double rivet the seams in 8, 
10, or 12 H. P. portable boilers. The pressures at which they are 
used are so low in proportion to the strength of the structure that 
it is generally considered amply strong with the single row, no 
objection exists, however, to the double riveting, in fact it is 
always to be preferred, because the strength of the joint is 
increased twenty per cent, thereby. 

The Fire-Box should be made of the best quality of charcoal 
hammered iron, or steel. The plate should be long enough to 
avoid a row of rivets above the grate bars if the construction is 
such as to permit it. In case steel should be used, its tensile 
strength should not exceed 65,000 pounds per square inch, and if 
a good ductile steel of 60,000 can be had, it is to be preferred. 
The fire-box should be large and roomy ; it offers the very best 
kind of heating surface, and for this reason a long fire-box with 
short tubes is to be recommended rather than long tubes and a 
short fire-box. 

The Crown Sheet should be arched and secured by stay-bolts 
running through to the outer shell. 

This method of staying has many advantages over a flat crown 
sheet with its usual cumbrous crown bars and bolts. A very 
great objection to a crown sheet stayed by the latter method is in 
its impairing the circulation of the water at just the place above 
all others that the circulation should be free and uninterrupted ; 
another objection exists in the fact that if the water used in the 
boiler contains salts of lime a hard scale will form underneath the 
crown bars and over the crown sheet, which not only prevents a 
complete transfer of heat, but will in a short time thereafter ruin 
the crown sheet by overheating. 



88 HANI) BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

The Stays around the fire-box should he ample to resist the 
highest pressure allowable on the boiler without permitting a 
bulging of the plate between them. The diameter of the stay- 
bolts will be fixed by the thickness of the plate, and their 
distance from center to center by the pressure to be carried. For 
one-quarter inch plates a three-quarter inch stay-bolt is as large 
as should be used, it should accurately fit into both sheets and 
and after screwing into place should then be carefully riveted 
over at both ends. For 80 pounds pressure the distance from 
center to center on the flat portions of the fire-box should meas- 
ure 4| inches ; for 100 pounds A\ inches, or for 70 pounds, 5 
inches will suffice. 

In case a stay-bolt should break, the repairs should be made 
immediately, meanwhile, if it is necessary to use the boiler, it 
should be at a reduced pressure, or disastrous consequences are 
likely to follow. 

Tubes should be of the best quality, expanded into carefully 
fitted holes, and may be from two to three inches in diameter; 
if less than the former diameter the draft is likely to be sluggish 
and they will be more apt to fill up with soot and ashes ; if larger 
than the latter, too much heat is likely to be lost by passing off 
into the chimney. 

Most manufacturers have adopted 2J inch tubes as a standard 
for portables and from which excellent practical results have been 
obtained. Tubes should be kept clean by using a good wire flue 
brush or scraper, and as it requires but a few minutes to clean 
the tubes it should be done every day. In case tubes get to leak- 
ing, they should be re-expanded and caulked tight. A small leak 
around the end^of a tube will soon cut a groove in the tube plate 
and furrow the tube so as to make it a very difficult thing to 
repair. 

Ferrules are often used at the ends to insure tightness after the 
tubes are somewhat worn ; these are simply iron rings having a 
tapering diameter on the outside and tightly driven into the leaky 
tube. This is only a temporary makeshift and is not to be 
regarded as restoring the tube. When the ends of the tubes are 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 89 

very much worn they should either he repaired "by cutting off the 
ends and welding on a new j)iece, or new tubes inserted instead. 

Copper Thimbles are sometimes used in connection with the 
tubes to make a better joint. When used, the tube sheet is bored 
out enough larger than the tube to allow a copper ring to slip 
over the end of the tube and also tightly fit the hole. In expand- 
ing into place the copper makes a tight joint with the tube plate, 
and at the same time increases at least twice the ordinary length 
of the joint. 

This is not a common practice in the construction of portable 
boilers but it is a good one. 

Tube Sheets should be made of the best flange iron or steel. 
The flanging should be carefully done, and when completed must 
be free from flaws of whatever kind. 

Cast-Iron Fronts to fire boxes are often used, and should be 
examined frequently to see that the lining is in good condition. 
When repairs are needed they should be promptly made, the 
best fire brick and fire clay should be used, A neglect to make the 
repairs when needed, will warp, crack or entirely destroy the front 
in a short time. 

A Water Front forming a part of the boiler is to be recom- 
mended rather than a cast-iron front. The heating surface and 
water room of the boiler, are both increased by its use. 

The Fire-Door Ring should be made of wrought-iron rather 
than cast. The outer and inner plates of the fire box should be 
carefully chipped and calked against the ring. The fire door may 
be of cast-iron ; it should have a butterfly register or other open- 
ings through it, and fitted with a perforated plate an inch or two 
back of the door proper, this will prevent loss of heat by radiation 
and destruction of the outer plate by warping. 

Water-Bottoms are often attached to portable boilers, especially 
those intended for the Southern market. The talking point about 
it is that of affording the greatest security against fire occasioned by 



90 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

dropping of live coals ; it also affords, when ample space is allowed 
between the two lower sheets, a better facility for cleaning than 
that offered by the open bottom ; there being a less violent move- 
ment of water in this than other portion of the boiler the sedi- 
ment and impurities are likely to collect here and may easily be 
blown out out or removed through the hand holes. The water 
bottom does not add to the heating surface of the boiler. 

Open-Bottom Fire Boxes are in more general use than those 
just referred to in the above paragraph. The ring at the bottom 
of the fire box should always be of wrought-iron. This form of 
fire box gives excellent satisfaction and is much less liable to corro- 
sion than when fitted with a water-bottom. A strong wrought- 
iron ash pan should be attached underneath with suitable hooks. 

Hand Holes should be placed so as to admit of thorough clean- 
ing and examination of all parts of the boiler. There should be 
one over the crown sheet, one under the tubes in the smoke box, 
and one at each corner of the fire box w T hen fitted w T ith an open 
bottom, and one at each end when fitted with a Avater bottom. 
These openings should be as large as practicable and convenient. 

A Fusible Plug should be inserted in the crown sheet at its 
highest point ; it consists usually of a brass shell filled with an 
alloy consisting of tin, lead and bismuth, which will remain solid 
so long as there is water over it, but which will melt if the water 
falls below its upper surface, and thus permit a flow of steam into 
the fire box and put the fire out before any damage occurs ; the 
proportions of the alloy being such that the melting occurs before 
the iron reaches a red heat. The object of its insertion in the boiler 
is to prevent a collapse of the crown sheet from overheating 
through a shortness of water. 

Too much dependence must not be placed on the certain work- 
ing of the fusible plug, as experience has shown that its efficiency 
has been greatly overrated, not that the metal failed to melt at 
the right temperature, but because an accumulation of scale had 
been allowed to form over its upper surface and of sufficient 
strength to withstand the boiler pressure without breaking. 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 91 

Whenever the hand-hole plate over the crown sheet is removed 
the plug should be examined to see that no scale is forming over 
the top of it. Should there be it may easily be removed and 
cleaned with an ordinary knife blade. 

Gauge Cocks. — Three gauge cocks are generally furnished with 
each boiler, the bottom one should be placed about an inch above 
the crown sheet, and each of the others on one inch centers above 
this. The water should be carried up to the center gauge cock 
which would then give two inches of w r ater over the crown sheet. 
This is ample for good steaming and should not be exceeded. Com- 
pression gauge cocks, or plug cocks -are to be preferred to the 
Mississiopi gauge cock. 

In case of leakage they may easily be ground to a fit by using 
very fine emery and oil. 

Glass Water Gauges should be attached to some convenient 
part of the boiler where there will be little danger of the glass 
tube being broken by the handling of coal, ashes, etc. 

It is preferable, as a general thing, to place it on the side rather 
than the end of the fire-box portion of the boiler. To support 
the gauge fittings and thus keep them in line, it is a common 
practice to attach the top and bottom fittings to an iron barrel 
which shall have a pipe leading from the ends into the water and 
steam spaces in the boiler. These connections should be tapped 
out for not less than a half-inch pipe, and if for three-quarter 
inch it is better still. Too much dependence must not be placed 
on the glass gauge as it is liable to become clogged and thus give 
false indications as to the water level. It should be used only in 
connection w T ith the gauge cocks. 

A Surface Blow is sometimes attached to portable boilers and 
serves a very useful purpose in skimming from the surface of the 
w T ater any impurities which collect there and lower the steaming 
capacity of the boiler. A perforated pipe extending under the 
water line is frequently used, so also is a flat funnel-shaped open- 
ing, sometimes a collecting pan or basin, is used, all with more or 
Aess satisfactory results. 



92 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Unless the water to be used is likely to form a floating scum, 
the surface blow may be omitted without impairing the efficiency 
of the boiler. 

A bottom Mow should be placed somewhere in the lowest 
water space in the boiler. As a general thing it is located in the 
throat sheet, underneath the cylindric shell of the boiler. As 
there is more or less dirt, grit, and particles of scale which are 
likely to lodge there, a cock is to be preferred to a valve. 

The Pump should receive special attention at the time of selec- 
tion, and carefully watched afterwards when in use. The pump 
valves should be large, strong, of good hard gun-metal working in 
gun-metal cages or other suitable guides, they should be easily 
accessible, and of the simplest construction. 

The pump plunger is usually driven directly from the cross- 
head, sometimes by means of a separate eccentric, and in rare 
instances an independent steam pump is attached to the boiler. 

A supply or feed cock should be attached at any convenient 
place below the lower pump valve; this should be adjusted so 
that a continuous flow of water will be passing into the boiler 
which shall exactly equal the quantity of water converted into 
steam. The practice of opening the feed to its full extent and 
filling up the boiler to nearly the upper gauge cock and then 
shutting it off altogether for a time, is all wrong, and no man who 
understands the management of a portable, or any other kind of 
an engine will do it. 

To determine whether the pump is working or not, a pet 
,',ock is introduced above the delivery valve of the pump by which 
it may be tested. As the pumps are usually single acting, the flow 
of water from the pet cock will be when the plunger is approach- 
ing the valves, and ceases when the return stroke is begun. Some- 
times the pet cock is placed in the feed pipe. Another pet cock 
is attached to the middle chamber of the pump or that into which 
the plunger works, it is useful when starting the pump to rid this 
chamber of air which may have collected there. 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 93 

The Supply Pipe to the pump is commonly a piece of heavy 
rubber hose three-quarters or one inch in diameter ; this hose 
need not be more than five or six feet long, or long enough to 
reach from the pump into a barrel containing the feed water for 
the boiler. 

A Strainer and Foot Yalve are easily combined and should be 
attached to the end of the hose referred to in the preceding para- 
graph. This, if properly made and kept in order, will prevent 
chips, straw, leaves, etc., from working into the pump. The foot 
valve will hold the water up to the pump, and thns allow it to 
begin work as soon as the supply cock is opened. 

A Check Yalve should be large and strong and so designed 
that it may easily be taken apart for cleaning or repairs. Most of 
the small check valves made for the trade are too light and too 
delicately proportioned to stand the wear and tear to which they 
are subjected in portable engines. In the attaching of a check 
valve to a boiler a stop cock should be placed between the two, 
so that in the event of the check not working, it may be examined 
without having to blow off the boiler. As soon as the examination 
of the valve is completed, and the parts restored, this cock should 
be opened ; and under no circumstances should the pump be set 
working until it is known that this cock is open, as a neglect to do 
so will result in breaking something about the feed apparatus. 

A Relief and Safety Stop Valve similar to that by Mr. C. P. 
Wiggins, St. Louis, Mo., will be found a convenient and desirable 
attachment to a portable engine, by its use it would be impossible 
to break down the pump or burst the connections leading to the 
boiler in case the cock between the check valve and boiler should 
happen to be shut. 

This valve is so constructed that there are three openings leading 
into the valve chamber of which only one can be closed. The 
vaive itseli is double-seated having a face above and below, so that 
on starting the pump the water will either be forced into the 
boiler or escape into the open air, depending on the position of the 
valve, in either case there would be no harm done the pump or 



94 HANI) BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

connections ; the flow into the boiler may thus be recognized at 
sight. 

Injectors and Inspirators are rarely applied to portable engines. 
The reason for their non-adoption no doubt lies in the difficulty 
heretofore experienced in operating them in connection with hard 
water, owing to the formation of scale in the interior passages or 
nozzles. 

If, however, the water to be used in the boiler is clean, pure 
and soft, then there is no other device now in the market which 
surpasses them in compactness, reliability, simplicity, and ease of 
management. 

The fact that they may be operated at any time when the steam 
is on, places them at a very great advantage over a pump driven 
from the cross-head of the engine, as the latter can be used only 
w r hile the engine is in motion, the former may be used at all times 
whether the engine is in motion or not. 

A Heater consists merely of a large pipe or a suitably cored 
chamber in the engine bed plate, into which the steam from the 
cylinder is exhausted at each stroke ; this pipe or chamber con- 
tains two or more lengths of, usually three-quarter-inch wrought 
iron iron pipe, through which the feed water passes on its way 
from the pump to the boiler. The exhaust steam surrounding 
these pipes gives up much of its heat and by raising the tempera- 
ture of the feed water a gain in fuel is had, as w T ell as, reducing the 
wear and tear of the boiler resulting from the use of cold feed 
water. To get the greatest economy, the flow of water through 
the pipes should be continuous and not at long intervals. 

The Safety Valve should be, both valve and seat, of some non- 
corrosive material, such as gun-metal, or bronze. 

There are several very good safety valves now in the market 
and in the selection of one for a portable engine preference should 
be given to a self-contained spring valve rather than one combin- 
ing a lever with the spring balance, or one fitted with a weight 
and lever. The latter kind is seldom met with on portable 
engines of recent construction. 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 95 

The valve should be set to blow off at a certain fixed pressure 
and then fastened by some device which will prevent any change 
in the tension of the spring by the loosening or slacking of the 
adjusting screw. As a general thing, portable engine valves are 
set to blow off at 80 pounds per square inch for new boilers. 

Every safety valve should be made so that it can be raised from 
the seat at any time, and thus insure its being in good working 
order. As the safety of the boiler often depends wholly upon 
the efficiency of this valve, too much care cannot be bestowed 
upon it, especially when in use. 

The Steam Gauge should be of the very best construction and 
conveniently located on the boiler so that the pressure may be 
noted at short intervals. The two leading types of gauges are : 
the " Bourdon " or some modification of it, and the diaphragm 
gauge. There are many things which may be said in favor of 
both kinds of gauges, it matters little which kind may be selected 
provided the gauge is a good one and is reliable in its readings 
under a long continued pressure. A syphon should be attached 
to the gauge which will collect the water of condensation and thus 
prevent the direct contact of the steam with the spring of the 
gauge. 

A Steam Blower will be found very useful in quickening a 
sluggish fire before starting the engine. It consists merely of an 
ordinary globe or angle valve by which the flow of steam from 
the boiler into the smoke-stack is regulated. The fittings are 
usually of a size corresponding to that of a half-inch wrought iron 
pipe. The end of the pipe entering the smoke-stack should be 
reduced to not more than one-quarter inch in diameter. When 
the engine is started the blower should be shut off, as the exhaust 
steam will cause all the artificial draft needed. 

The Whistle should be of small size and fitted w r ith an auto- 
matic valve, and lever. The connection from the whistle to the 
boiler should be straight as possible, the bends, if any are required, 
must be such that the water of condensation will drain back 
into the boiler. Severe cases of scalding are likely to follow 
neglect in drainage. 



96 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

The Smoke-Box is usually a continuation of the shell of the 
boiler to a distance of about ten inches, and fitted with a cast iron 
plate having a door or other suitable opening for getting at the 
tubes. The smoke-box should be cleaned out frequently and 
especial care should be taken that no soot and cinders accumulate 
around the lower flange of the head, as it is likely to produce a 
leak after a time, by the corrosion of the plates with which it 
comes in contact. 

The Smoke-Stack should have a strong cast iron base firmly 
attached to the smoke-box. The stack should be arranged with a 
device for lowering it when the engine is to be hauled from place 
to place/ A strong cast iron ring riveted to the stack and hinged 
to the lower half, or that part riveted to the smoke-box, is perhaps 
the best arrangement now in use. 

There have been many devices invented and attached to smoke 
stacks for arresting sparks, but a good and efficient spark arrester is 
yet a thing of the future. For arresting the heavier particles, such 
as cinders, etc., the stacks which have given the best satisfaction 
are those in which the current of escaping gases is abruptly 
changed, or reversed for a short distance, this has the effect to 
project the heavier particles downward into the smoke-box, from 
which they may be removed at any time. 

A very common method of making a stack is to have a wire 
cloth screen across the top. This should not be too fine or the 
meshes will fill up, nor too coarse for it will then allow the escape 
of too large pieces of live cinders. This netting should be 
made of steel in preference to iron wire; and should be made ten 
meshes to the inch, No. 19 wire. This netting should be attached 
either to a hinged cap or fastened to a hinged or swinging frame 
at the top of the stack, the object being to add to the convenience 
in cleaning it and also to afford a better draft on a rainy day, by 
allowing the whole screen to be raised and thus permit the escap- 
ing gases to pass out underneath it. 

Boiler Covering. — The close competition and consequent low 
price at which portable engines are placed in the market is the 
common excuse manufacturers give for not covering the boiler 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 97 

with a non-absorbing substance, and thus prevent the great loss 
of heat by radiation. It is the common practice in locomotive 
works to cover the boiler with narrow strips of wood and then 
cover the whole with sheet iron. This forms a most excellent 
covering, and is of extremely light weight, besides being very 
durable. If all portable boilers were similarly covered it would 
add greatly to their economy. 

Vertical Boilers are sometimes supplied portable engines but 
their use is not very common, being confined to certain localities 
rather than a general admixture throughout the whole trade. The 
chief merit of a vertical boiler is that it contains the greatest 
amount of heating surface with the smallest weight of shell, and 
the least quantity of water. To offset this, vertical tubular boilers 
are more apt to prime than the ordinary portable boiler on account 
of the deficient circulation between the tubes over the crown 
sheet. 

It has long been, and still is, the practice of boiler makers to 
put in too many tubes in vertical boilers; this is done for the 
purpose of making the heating surface appear large and thus give 
the boilers a higher rating than that to which, they are justly 
entitled. By reducing the number of tubes so that their combined 
area of cross section is merely sufficient to carry off the products of 
combustion, will make a boiler in every way superior to that 
usually built in which no regard is paid to circulation. 

If this detail of construction be properly attended to there is 
then, other things being equal, no particular objection to a verti- 
cal boiler for portable engines ; in fact a great deal might be said 
in its favor. 

The Engine should be strong, simple, and durable ; this requires 
that it be of good design, materials and workmanship. Whether 
the engine shall be horizontal or vertical matters but little, as an 
engine properly designed for the work and adapted for either 
position, will do good work in either position. The arguments 
both for and against these two styles of engines nearly balance 
each other. As a general rule horizontal boilers are supplied 
with horizontal engines, and vertical boilers with vertical engines, 



98 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

but occasionally portables are seen in which the order of things 
are reversed. 

There is a difference of opinion as to whether an engine 
intended for a horizontal boiler shall be fastened to the side of the 
boiler or on the top of it. Most builders place the engine on the 
side and either carry the shaft across the end of the boiler or locate 
the engine high enough to permit the shaft to pass over the top 
of it ; others prefer to make the engine self-contained and place it 
on the top of the boiler. 

The Cylinder should be made of hard iron and accurately fitted. 
It should be well fastened to the bed and so designed that it may 
be removed without taking out the tap bolts which secure the bed 
to the boiler. In rare instances an engine is seen in which the 
cylinder and bed are cast in one piece. In such construction the 
cylinder should have an extra thickness of metal to allow for 
repeated borings, or what is better still, the cylinder should have 
a lining in it, which may be easily removed and a new one sub- 
stituted when repairs become necessary. Whenever possible the 
steam chest should be included in the same casting with the cylin- 
der. So also, the exhaust passage should be continued around the 
cylinder to any convenient point where a proper connection can 
be made with the heater ; one which shall permit the disconnect- 
ing of the exhaust without interferring with the bolts which 
secure the cylinder to the bed. In some engines the heater is 
placed directly underneath and the exhaust passage is continued 
around so much of the cylinder as may be necessary to join the 
two flanges by a single joint ; this greatly simplifies the construc- 
tion and is a good practice if either or both ends of the heater are 
left free of any obstruction. 

Steam Jackets are seldom applied to portable engine cylinders 
and it is doubtful whether the trade would pay for the increased 
cost of construction. The outside cylinder casting and the inner 
lining in which the piston works should be two separate pieces 
with a steam space between them which shall completely encircle 
the inner cylinder from end to end. 

This jacket should have direct communication with the steam 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 99 

room of the boiler, so that it may be filled with live steam at full 
boiler pressure at all times, and the jacket should, from its lowest 
point, drain back into the boiler any water of condensation which 
may accumulate there. This connection should be entirely inde- 
pendent of the steam supply by which the piston is driven, 
because, if the supply is made to pass around the cylinder in order 
to reach the steam chest, some of the steam will be condensed and 
the water of condensation will be carried over into the cylinder, 
and thus any gain which might be secured by an efficient jacket 
will have been lost. 

Lagging a cylinder saves heat by preventing radiation. It has 
long been a practice, and an excellent one, to lag the cylinder with 
narrow wood staves and covering the outside with sheet metal, or 
perhaps reeding the staves and finishing the ends with a narrow 
strip of sheet brass. Sometimes a sheet metal cover is attached to 
the flanges and the space between filled with plaster of paris or 
some other non-conductor. 

A metal lagging attached to the flanges with an air space 
between the cylinder and the lagging will also prevent a great 
deal of loss by radiation if the air space has no circulation or cur- 
rents in it connecting with the atmosphere. 

The Main Yalve or the one which regulates the admission of 
steam into the cylinder may be any one of several well-known 
designs, usually, however, it is either the common flat-faced B 
slide valve, or a rotary valve, or a piston valve. The first of the 
three named is in more general use than any other valve ever 
introduced. The rotary valve is not correctly named, as the rota- 
tion is only partial, the valve and seat instead of being flat 
are made circular, in other respects it does not differ in its action 
from the plane slide valve, except, of course, by the manner in 
which it is operated. The piston valve is oftener met with in 
small stationary engines than in portables, and it is in all respects 
a good valve when properly made and applied. 

The only attention the valve requires is that it shall be kept 
well oiled, not excessively, but sufficient to keep it in good 
wearing condition. For this purpose a valve lubricator is attached 



100 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

to the steam chest. These are rarely automatic in their action 
and will require more or less attention on the part of the attend- 
ant. 

The valve should always he properly set when the engine leaves 
the shop, and should never he disturbed except for repairs or other 
good reason. 

The Steam Chest Joint should he properly made after taking 
off the cover to examine the valve. There is perhaps no better 
joint for this purpose than that made with a layer of vulcanized 
rubber packing ; this need not be very thick if the joints are in 
good condition, say one-thirty-second inch or perhaps a trifle heav- 
ier. A spare gasket should be kept on hand at all times, as it 
often happens that the one in use is torn in the removal of the 
steam chest cover. 

The Piston will need but little attention except to keep it well 
lubricated. The rings seldom need adjusting, and when they do, 
it should be only sufficient to prevent the steam from flowing 
past the piston from one end to the other of the cylinder. Young 
and inexperienced engineers make a great mistake in tightening 
the piston rings at every opportunity. The only effect is to pro- 
duce more friction and thus wear out the cylinder in a shorter 
time. Some manufacturers pay a considerable royalty for a self- 
adjusting piston packing in order to relieve themselves from the 
annoyance caused by this habit of setting out the packing rings 
when it is wholly unnecessary. 

The Piston Rod should be made of steel and must be kept 
entirely free from rust. The stuffing box should be large and 
kept well filled with a good packing of which there are several 
varieties now in the market, and may be purchased at any 
machinery depot or large hardware store. If this cannot be had, 
a plaited gasket made of jute or hemp may be used, which after 
being laid up in three or more strands should be soaked in melted 
tallow and then driven into place with a wooden packing stick. 
Never use a metal packing stick as it will mark the rod and cut 
out the packing in a short time after starting the engine. Do not 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 101 

screw the packing too tight, all that is needed is that it shall pre- 
vent leakage of steam. Be careful that the gland is screwed up 
evenly, and that it does not bind the piston rod. Keep the piston 
rod well oiled and see that it is always bright and dean. 

The Yalve Rod and stuffing box are to be cared for in a similar 
manner to the above. 

The Cross-Head must be kept clean and well oiled. After every 
run it should be thoroughly wiped to remove any cinders and 
dust which may have collected on or about it. Ir needs no special 
care except to see that«it is working free, and is well cared for. 

The Guides need no other attention than to be kept clean and 
well oiled. 

The Connecting Rod will require constant care and watching, 
the crank-pin end more so than the other. It is absolutely essen- 
tial that the flow of oil be constant and regular in order to get the 
best results. For this purpose an oil cup should be provided 
which shall deliver to the crank-pin a certain amount of oil at 
each stroke of the piston. 

When the brasses are somewhat worn they should be adjusted 
by keying the strap a little tighter, or otherwise adjusting the 
boxes if the connecting rod is not fitted with strap joints. 

This should be proceeded with very cautiously, for if too tight 
the brasses are sure to heat, and cutting of the pin will inevitably 
follow. It is on the whole better that the boxes are made to fit 
brass to brass and keyed up solid, then, if further adjustment is 
needed, file off slightly from the edges of the boxes and replace in 
the strap, keying up as before. 

After the engine has been in use a few months and several 
adjustments of the connecting rod have been made, the rear cylin- 
der head should be removed and the clearance measured between 
the piston at the end of the stroke and the cylinder head when in 
place. If this distance is less than one-sixteenth inch it becomes 
dangerously close, and liners should be placed back of the con- 
necting rod brasses to carry the piston forward to the original 



102 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

position which it occupied when it came from the shop. It may 
perhaps be better to put in a new set of brasses in the connecting 
rod. 

The Crank-Pin should be made of steel and must be carefully 
watched that it does not heat. When once a crank pin has been 
overheated, and especially if it has ever cut itself into ridges or 
grooves, it is very difficult to get it to run smooth and cool 
thereafter. 

The Main Bearing will require to be carefully looked after, 
first to keep it from heating, and second to keep it in line ; that is, 
see that the side boxes are so adjusted as to keep the main shaft 
in line. Other than this it requires no special attention. 

The Rear Bearing must be so adjusted as to work in line with 
the main bearing. The fly-wheel or pulley is usually located near 
the rear bearing and as it has to take all the strain of the belt it 
should receive careful attention. 

A Cranked Shaft is generally used on engines which are located 
on the top of the boiler, these have a bearing on each side of the 
crank. Engines of this design are usually supplied with two 
pulleys, a large one on the one side, and a smaller one on the 
other. Such shafts are usually large for the work required of 
them, and will need little else than to see that the bearings are 
properly oiled. 

The Fly-Wheel for portable engines is generally made with a 
wide heavy rim suitable for driving directly from it. Sometimes 
these wheels are so out of balance as to seriously interfere with 
the otherwise smooth working of the engine ; particular atten- 
tion should be given to this matter in the shop and no fly-wheel or 
other pulley intended for a portable engine should be placed in 
position until it is perfectly balanced. 

A smaller pulley is often placed on the same shaft for driving 
machinery at lower speeds than the larger one will admit of, on 
account of its size. 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 103 

To find the rate of revolution at which a pulley would be driven 
by the engine, is found in this way: Multiply the diameter of the 
pulley on the engine shaft, in inches, by the number of revolutions 
per minute, then divide this product by the diameter in inches 
of the pulley to be driven, the quotient will be the number of 
revolutions per minute. 

Example : An engine fly wheel is 42 inches diameter and makes 
180 turns per minute ; how fast will it drive a pulley 7 inches in 
diameter ? 

42 multiplied by 180 equals 7560. 

7560 divided by 7 equals 1080 revoltions per minute, the answer 
required. 

The Eccentric, next after the crank-pin, requires more attention 
than any other part of the engine. The straps should be as loose 
as possible and not rattle ; if too tight, they are likely to heat and 
cut fast. The best way to adjust them is to insert between the 
lugs w r here they are bolted together, tin or other thin washers, 
and then tighten the bolts so as to make, practically, a solid ring. 
After a time, w T hen they will need readjusting, one or more pieces 
of tin may be taken out and the straps again bolted together. 

The eccentric should be keyed to the shaft rather than fastened 
with set-screws. A very good way to secure an eccentric and one 
which is sometimes practiced by portable engine builders, is to 
fit the eccentric to the hub of the crank, and then hold it in place 
by means of a bolt passing through the crank and screwing into 
the eccentric. Such a thing as slipping by this arrangement is 
impossible. 

By simply drilling and tapping two holes at the proper posi- 
tions in the eccentric, the engine will be be enabled to run over 
or under as circumstances may require. 

The Yalve Connections should be simple and direct. If a 
knuckle-joint is used, or small strap joints, they should be well 
oiled, and if it is necessary at any time to adjust the connections, 
care should be taken that the pins in the joints be left exactly at 
right angles to the throw of the eccentric, otherwise an undue 



104 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

strain will be brought to bear on the joint which will soon destroy 
its accuracy. 

A Link Motion is not generally applied to portable engines 
except in such cases as need a prompt reversible motion, such for 
example, as in wharf work, pile driving, mining, etc. 

A Governor for a portable engine should be quick and sensitive 
in its movements at any variation of speed. It is important that 
it be of the best materials and thoroughly well made. There is 
nothing about a portable engine likely to give more trouble than 
a poor governor. It ought, therefore, to have a certain adapta- 
bility for the place in which it is to be used ; and the graduation 
of the governor valve should be such as to adjust the pressure in 
the steam chest to the load on the engine without wide and 
extreme variations, as this is likely to produce a great irregularity 
of motion in the engine, or racing, as it is generally called. 

The governor belt should be of a width best suited to the gov- 
ernor. In general, a narrow leather belt well filled with some 
one of the various " belt stuffings," or with castor oil, will be 
found to be reliable under almost all conditions. A tightener 
should be attached to the engine whenever practicable, as it will 
allow slight variations of length to be taken up without having to 
stop the engine and shorten the belt, it will also prevent the belt 
slipping and so keep the governor running at its regular rate. 

A safety attachment is applied to many governors now in the 
market, by which the engine is stopped at the same time the 
governor stops running. Such a device cannot be too heartily 
commended, provided the remainder of the governor mechanism 
and the governor valve are in all respects equal to the best gov- 
ernors which do not have this safety device. All things consid- 
ered, it is better to have a good governor without the safety 
device, than a poor one with it. 

The Steam Pipe should be as short and direct as possible ; it 
should, at some convenient point between the boiler and the 
governor have a good strong globe, or other stop valve. This valve 
is generally called the throttle valve, but it ought not to be such 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 105 

in reality. When the engine is once fairly started it ought then 
to be opened wide, and let the governor take care of the engine. 

The Exhaust Pipe leading from the heater to the base of the 
chimney is generally large and roomy, but at the end of it there is 
either a contracted nozzle forming a part of the pipe, or it is fitted 
with a removable nozzle by which any desired concentration of 
the exhaust steam may be had for the purpose of forming at the 
base of the chimney a strong blast to assist the furnace draft. 

The smaller the nozzle the more intense the blast, but at the 
same time there is an increase of back pressure on the piston, 
which takes off just so much from the power of the engine. The 
diameter of the nozzle should be no smaller than that necessary 
to keep up steam under a full load. 

Drain Cocks should be provided at any point where the water 
is likely to collect, and in freezing burst a pipe or fitting. These 
should be opened at night so as to drain all the pipes perfectly 
dry. 

The Wagon supplied portable engines is of the simplest des- 
cription; about the only real difference among manufacturers is 
a wrought-iron axle passing under the boiler at the fire box, while 
others secure a short wrought-iron axle to a cast-iron bracket 
which is then bolted to the sides of the fire box. The forward 
axle is in all essentials the same for all engines. 

There is a wide difference of opinion as to whether wood or iron 
wheels shall be used. Most portables are now fitted with wooden 
wheels, but the iron ones are steadily growing in favor. An iron 
wheel may have a cast-iron hub but the arms and tire should be 
of wrought-iron. 

A Brake should be attached to all portable engines intended for 
use in a hilly country. The handle should be within easy reach 
of the driver, and the strains on the brake rods should always be 
those of extension rather than of compression, for if of the latter 
they are likely to be bent and thus rendered inoperative, perhaps 
at a time when most needed. 



106 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

The Tools Required for a Portable Engine are not numerous, 
but include a shovel, scraper, slice or hooked bar, flue brush, 
screw wrench, packing hooks, hand hammer, and oil can. 

Directions for Running a Portable Engine:— 

1. Get the engine into position and see that it stands perfectly 
level, and that the belt is in line with the machinery to be driven. 

2. See that the engine is perfectly clean in all the wearing 
parts, and that the hand-hole plates are all in position and the 
boiler ready to be filled with water. 

3. Fill the boiler with water to about two inches above the 
crown sheet, or up to the second gauge cock. 

4. Examine the pump and see that it is clean and in good 
working order. Examine the supply hose, strainer, and foot 
valve. 

5. Procure a tight, clean barrel for the water supply and place it 
near the pump. This barrel should always be kept nearly full of 
water. 

6. Examine the packing at the piston and valve rods. It is 
true economy to pack these often, and it should not be allowed to 
get hard and brittle, as it will not only be difficult to keep the 
steam from flowing through, but will scratch and groove the rods. 

7. Start the fire, using plenty of good dry kindling, but do not 
force it ; let the fire burn slowly at the start, as it will save many 
a leak and add months, if not years, to the life of the boiler. 
When the boiler begins to steam the blower valve may be opened 
slightly and thus increase the draft, shutting it off when the 
steam is up nearly to the running pressure. 

8. Oil the engine, open the drain cocks to the cylinder, and to 
the heater. 

9. See that the governor and belt are in good working order. 

10. Turn the engine over by hand to see that everything is free, 
then open the throttle valve and allow the engine to run for a few 
minutes, quite slow. When the cylinder is warm and no water 
of condensation escapes from the cylinder cocks, they can be 
closed and the throttle opened w T ide. 

11. See that the valve or cock between the check valve and the 
boiler is open ; then place the supply hose with the foot valve 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 107 

and strainer in the barrel of water, then partially open the supply 
cock under the pump, open the pet cock in the pump barrel to 
expel the air, put your finger over the opening in the pet cock to 
prevent the flow of air into the pump when the plunger is with- 
drawn, and as soon as the pump plunger forces out water instead 
of air close this pet cock, and then examine the check to see if 
it is working. 

12. Keep your eye on the glass water gauge and be sure that it 
is indicating the true water level, as shown by the gauge cocks. 

13. Try the safety valve several times during the day and see 
that it is in good working order. At the same time see how 
nearly it and the steam gauge agree. 

14. Fire regularly, and not at all sorts of irregular intervals. 
Keep the grates well covered and do not allow air holes to form in 
the fire. The fire should be kept clean, but do not rake the fire 
as long as the ash pit remains bright. Do not let the ashes accu- 
mulate under the grates, but keep the ash pit clean. 

15. Adjust the water supply by means of the cock below the 
pump so that a continuous feed is had which shall just equal the 
evaporation. Keep the water-level in the boiler at the second or 
middle gauge cock. 

16. Never shut the cock between the boiler and check valve 
except when it is necessary to examine the latter. If it is neces- 
sary to close it while the engine is running be sure that the supply 
to the pump is first shut off, or an accident of some kind is sure to 
occur. 

17. Blow out the boiler as often as once a week, when used 
steadily. If the boiler is accumulating scale a pint or so of crude 
petroleum might be put in the boiler the day before blowing out. 
Do not put coal oil in the boiler. If you cannot get crude petro- 
leum put in two or three quarts of common molasses. The object 
of introducing these substances in the boiler is to loosen the scale 
if any has formed. After blowing out, the boiler should be care- 
fully cleaned and thoroughly washed to be sure that the scale is 
all removed ; after which a pound of sal-soda or better still crude 
tannate of soda maybe put into the boiler and then filled with 
water. 



108 HANI) BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

It is highly important that the boiler be kept perfectly clean 
and free from scale. 

18. In case of priming or foaming, slow the engine down a little 
by closing the throttle, open the fire door to check the fire, open 
the cylinder cocks, and increase the feed slightly. 

As soon as the priming stops, turn the feed cock back to its 
regular place, shut the fire door, and if no water is blown out of 
the cylinder cocks close them, then open the throttle gradually 
until the engine works up to its regular speed. 

19. Low w T ater is always dangerous; if the water supply is 
ample and the pump in good working order there is no excuse for 
its occurrence, but when it does happen and the water disappears 
from the lower gauge cock, cover the fire w T ith fresh coal, leave the 
fire door open, close the ash pit door or damper, but do not 
disturb the engine ; let it use all the steam the boiler makes and 
allow it to run until it stops of itself. When there is no longer 
any steam in the boiler take out the hand hole plate above the 
crown sheet and see if it is bare, if not, or not overheated, then 
fill up the boiler to the second gauge cock, replace the hand-hole 
plate, open the ash pit door, close the fire door and raise the 
steam again as usual. 

Finally, as it is not possible to enumerate all the things to which 
attention must be given in the management of a portable engine, 
it is expected that the person in charge will give it his whole 
time and attention, and that above all things the height of water, 
steam pressure, firing, lubricating, and cleaning, will be faithfully 
attended to. 

When the season's work is over and the engine is to be laid 
up for the winter, the boiler should be perfectly cleaned inside and 
out, all the pipes, the pumps, the siphon, and everything else 
containing or likely to contain water, should be carefully drained. 
The fire box, tubes, ash pan, grate bars, smoke box, and chimney, 
should be perfectly cleaned, 'take out all the packing from the 
piston, valve rod, governor and throttle valve stuffing boxes. 
Thoroughly clean all the bright work and cover with a mixture of 
about equal weights of white lead and tallow melted together and 



PORTABLE ENGINES. 109 

put on with a brush or rag. Give the outside of trie boiler, the 
fire box, ash pan, chimney and smoke box a coat of asphaltum 
varnish. Then run the engine under cover until next season. 

When next season arrives don't put off until the last minute 
getting the engine ready for service. Take advantage of rainy 
days before harvest and have it ready for use at any time that it 
may be needed. 

In case the engine should need repairs, have them made as 
early in the season as possible ; it is as a general thing better on 
the score of economy to order new parts from the manufacturer 
than attempt to have them made in a country shop when such 
parts require special patterns and special tools to make them. 

Traction Engines ante-date by many years the modern portable 
engine. As early as 1680 Newton proposed a steam carriage and 
furnished a sketch illustrating the principle on which it was to 
be constructed ; but it is doubtful whether any steam carriage 
was actually experimented with until 1769 when one was con- 
structed by an officer of the French army named Cugnot. From 
that time down to the present there has been no lack of 
devices for propelling the engine not only, but for hauling wagon 
trains as well. 

Traction engines w r ere originally devised to supersede horse- 
X^ower on common roads, previously to the general adoption of 
railways. The demand for traction engines at this time is alto- 
gether from a different standpoint. They are not required for 
hauling trains so much as it is desired that a portable engine shall 
be capable of self-propulsion. This has stimulated manufacturers 
to the perfecting of an engine which may be used in all respects 
as an ordinary portable engine is used, and when necessary will 
transport itself to a new position, or to a neighboring farm. This 
is about all that can reasonably be expected of a portable engine 
at present. 

Traction engines have been in very common use in England for 
several years, and with greater or less success. This by no means 
proves that such engines will be equally serviceable in this coun- 
try. The conditions of the roads in the two countries are 
different. If we had a system of well-kept gravel roads, or turn- 



HO HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

pikes in the farming districts, then a traction engine might be 
very serviceable in drawing heavy loads in wagons. 

Most manufacturers in this country construct their portable 
engines with single cylinders. The regular design of engine 
intended for the ordinary trade is used, the traction portion con- 
sisting simply in the addition of a few parts over those regularly 
furnished. By this means the manufacturer is enabled to supply 
customers with either kind of engine without having to use two 
sets of patterns from the outset. 

The parts required over the regular portable engine are geared 
driving wheels, with suitable pinion and shaft. This shaft some- 
times contains a special train or assemblage of gears known as 
differential gears, or more commonly "a jack in the box." This 
consists essentially of two large bevel wheels, and bevel pinions 
working into both of these wheels. These pinions are secured 
and revolve freely in a circular frame which is also free to revolve 
around the shaft; it is through this circular frame that the power 
is applied, which may be either by means of a gear wheel or a 
chain. One of the large bevel wheels is keyed to the shaft and 
which also has secured to it a pinion gearing into one of the main 
driving wheels ; the other bevel wheel slips loosely over the shaft 
and is usually fitted to a sleeve or pipe, and which is also fitted at 
its further extremity with a pinion which gears into the other 
driving wheel. 

The power is applied through the revolving frame carrying the 
pinions, and so long as there are no obstructions the driving 
wheels both move together, but if it is desired to make a turn in 
the road it is obvious that the outer driving wheel will have a 
greater distance to travel than the inner one, in which case the 
inner wheel will make fewer revolutions, or may perhaps, for a 
moment at a time, be standing still while the other wheel will be 
in motion. This very necessary movement of the wheels may be 
accomplished by means of this combination of bevel wheels and 
sleeve already described. 

Another method of arriving at the same end is to secure pinions 
at both ends of the shaft gearing into the driving wheels, and then 
making the hubs of the wheels in such a manner that a ratchet or 



PORTABLE ENGINES. Ill 

other device shall allow one wheel to advance in revolution over 
the other when meeting obstructions or turning a corner. 

Traction engines should be made reversible, and there is per- 
haps no better device for the purpose than the ordinary link 
motion. 

A good sized platform should be attached to the fire box on 
which the engineman shall be able to stand when the engine is in 
motion. This platform should contain a water-tank and a box for 
a reasonable supply of coal. 

In ordering a portable engine with a traction attachment the 
steering gear should also be ordered at the same time. This will 
enable the engineman to have complete control of the engine on 
the road and will in no resj>ect be dependent on the driver, and 
will also lessen the liability to accident. 



CHAP. X. 

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF A 
LOCOMOTIVE. 

The locomotive engineer or engineman, has, as a general thing, 
little or nothing to do with the design or selection of a locomotive 
engine. These are included in the general equipment, and the 
particular type and size of engines to be used are determined by 
the directors or some official delegated by them to make a suitable 
selection of rolling stock for the road. 

The Engiiieniaii is placed in charge of the engine assigned to 
him, and is given an assistant who acts as fireman. The engine- 
man exercises a general supervision of the engine while on the 
road, and directs, when necessary, the operations of the fireman. 
He should give his attention to the manner of firing, the perfor- 
mance of the boiler, the supply of feed water, the pressure of 
steam, and should be so conversant with the features of the road 
that the firing and production of steam shall be such as not only 
make schedule time in running, but do so with the greatest 
economy of fuel and the least wear and tear of the engine. 

The duties of an Engineinaii are so varied that it requires a 
man of peculiar make up to be a success on the road. The time 
was when they were recruited from the ranks in the machine 
shop, and it was seldom that a man could get an engine to run 
unless he was also a good machinist. This practice was not found 
to be so necessary as it was at first supposed. 

Now they are not required to be machinists, but serve for a time 
as a fireman, and are successively promoted from the charge of 
switch engines, local freight, through freight, local passenger, 
to the charge of locomotives attached to through express trains. 



RAISING STEAM. 113 

In getting an Engine ready to go out on the road, and before 
starting the fire, there should be at least one gauge of water in 
the boiler. The grates should be perfectly clean and free from 
binders or clinkers, and should also be examined to determine 
whether they are securely fastened. See that the throttle valve 
is closed, and the link in mid-position. 

Use dry wood in starting the fire and do not urge it, but let the 
the fire kindle slowly. Never try the experiment to see how 
■quickly you can raise steam from cold water; there is nothing 
which will so quickly and effectually ruin a boiler as rapid and 
intense firing before the plates in the shell of the boiler are heated 
to the temperature corresponding to the pressure of steam nearly 
up to that at which it is to be used on the road. 

'When the fire is kindled, the fire-box is heated and expands, 
while the outside of the boiler is scarcely warmer than at first. 
The immediate effect is to expand the whole internal portion and 
so bring an undue strain upon the outer and inner portions of the 
toiler. This expansion is very complex because of the construc- 
tion of the boiler and its system of bracing. The fire-box will 
•expand in all directions, because it is heated on all sides; the 
bottom being rigidly secured by a ring to the outer shell of the 
boiler is prevented thereby from expanding downward, so that in 
addition to this cubical expansion there is also a movement of 
the whole fire-box upward; this has a tendency to loosen every 
stay-bolt in the sides of the fire-box, and the nearer the top of 
the fire-box the greater the expansion and the greater the strain 
brought upon the stays. The effect of the heat on the tubes is to 
lengthen them ; as the outer shell of the boiler is cold, the action 
of the tubes is that of pushing through the tube sheets. Tubes 
are secured to the tube sheets by expanding and caulking only, 
and will soon, through improper management of fires in raising 
steam, become loose and leaky. 

There is little doubt that much of the trouble with steel fire- 
boxes has had its origin in improper starting of fires. Let the 
fire then burn slowly until steam is raised. 

When Steam is on the Boiler, and near the time when the 
engine is to be used, the cylinders should be warmed, the cylinder 



114 HAND BOOK FOB 'STEAM ENGINEERS. 

cocks opened, shifting the link occasionally that both ends of the 
cylinder may be warmed and all water of condensation allowed to 
escape. 

The injector should be tried to see that it is in good working 
order. If it should be found to be out of order it should be taken 
apart immediately, cleaned and replaced ; if it does not need 
cleaning the trial need not be of more than a few minutes duration, 
unless the boiler should be in need of water. 

The engine should be thoroughly oiled before taking it out of 
the engine-house, examine the tank to ascertain the quantity of 
w T aterinit; if fuel and water are needed the necessary supply 
should be furnished before the delivery of the engine for service. 

Before starting the engine the bell should he rung as a warn- 
ing for those engaged near it, or on the tracks, to get out of the 
way. Ample time should be given for this purpose, and the man 
in charge should satisfy himself that the track is clear before 
starting. Under no circumstances should an engine be started 
without this signal. 

When out of the engine house, and as soon thereafter as possi- 
ble, try the pumps and be sure they are in good working order. 

In taking charge of an engine for the first time the engineman 
should see that there are no leaks around the boiler, and that the 
safety valves blow off at the pressure at which they are set, he 
should also know whether the spring balances of Jiis safety valves 
are correctly marked. The steam gauge should be known to be 
correct. He should also satisfy himself as to the exact j>osition of 
the lower gauge cock above the crown sheet. The throttle valve 
should be tested for leaks, this can easily be done when the engine 
is standing, by simply opening the valve in the oil cups on the top 
of the steam chests, if there is a leak the steam will continue to 
issue through the oil cups into the atmosphere ; and in general 
satisfy himself as to the condition of everything about the engine. 

In making up, or connecting with a train, the engineman and 
fireman should both be on the engine. The fireman should not 
unnecessarily absent himself from the brake on the tender, until 
everything is in readiness for the road. 



LEAVING A STATION. 115 

The steam should now be up to the full running pressure ; if the 
fire is sluggish the steam blower may be opened to quicken it, but 
should be closed immediately on starting the engine. 

When the train is ready to start the engineman is then under 
the direction of the conductor. Upon the signal to start, which 
should always be by sounding the signal bell and not by the 
waving of the hand or lamp ; upon this signal, the engineman 
should, before opening the throttle, cause the whistle to be blown 
or the bell to be rung, the latter should be used in preference to 
the former at all times, reserving the whistle for signaling when 
the train is in motion. The cylinder cocks should be wide open, 
the link should be placed at nearly or entirely the full throw of the 
valve, the throttle opened gradually so as to prevent the jerking of 
cars. If the train is a very heavy one, the engine should first be 
reversed and thus take up the slack of the train ;• this should be 
done cautiously that the momentum of the forward cars do not 
give motion to the rear car, the link is then to be quickly thrown 
into forward gear and the train started one car at at a time until 
the whole train is in motion. 

In starting a train during wet weather or at other times when 
the driving wheels slip, the valves at the sand box may be opened 
and the rail slightly sanded. This should not be resorted to 
unless absolutely necessary, and then it need not often be of more 
than momentary duration. 

Immediately after starting, the engineman must satisfy him- 
self that the train is all connected, and for the first few minutes 
thereafter that it remains so. Link couplings are often broken in 
two in starting, sometimes only one side breaks and the train is 
hauled some distance before it parts the other side, or slips past 
the pin. On passenger and some freight trains this would be 
immediately made known by the sounding of the signal bell. 

The engineman's attention must be given in starting from a 
station, to the engine itself, the track before him, and the train 
behind hi in. He must see that the switches are properly set and 
that the signals indicate a clear track. He must have the engine 
under perfect control and see whether or not any signal has been 



116 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

given at the station for the stopping of the train after the one for 
starting had been given. Now that trains are run under the 
orders of a general train dispatcher, this recall is not an infre- 
quent occurrence. 

After starting a train, and it is seen that no water is being 
blown from the cylinder cocks, they should be closed. The speed, 
if running through a town, should not exceed four miles ]>er 
hour, the bell should be constantly rung until outside the corpo- 
ration limits. The engineer and fireman should both be on the 
lookout for obstructions, switches, signals, and for pedestrians 
and vehicles at street crossings. When outside the corporate 
limits the speed may be increased and the regular running time 
entered upon. 

The Pressure of Steam should be kept fully up to that at 
which it is intended by the superintendent of motive power, or 
the master mechanic. There is a great saving of fuel by using 
high pressure steam for a portion of the stroke and then expand- 
ing to a lower pressure. It is necessary in starting a train to use 
the steam to nearly the full stroke of the piston, but, as the 
engine gains in speed, the link may be raised by moving the 
reversing lever tow T ard the center of the quadrant. The notches 
in this quadrant are measured and the degree of cut-off stamped 
thereon, so that the engineman may know what portion of the 
stroke the steam is following. The weight of the train and the 
features of the road will determine what is the best point of cut- 
ting off in order to maintain a certain speed. This must be left 
entirely to the judgment of the engineman. 

The Greatest Economy will be secured if the engine be run 
with the throttle wide open and the travel of the valve adjusted 
to the load. 

This is subject, however, to some modifying circumstances. If 
the train is a heavy one, and the engine working up to nearly its 
full capacity, the best and most economical results will be attained; 
if, however, the boiler is defective in design, or the fuel bad, or 
the boiler too small for the cylinders, there is a possibility that 
the steam may be cut off so early in the stroke that after expan- 



SUPPLY OF FEED- WATER. 117 

sion there is not force enough in the exhaust steam to create the 
necessary draft for the fire, and it will be found difficult to keep 
up steam. In this case the pressure may he lowered, or the throttle 
may be closed somewhat, the lever moved a notch or two further 
forward until the exhaust has sufficient influence on the draft to 
keep a brisk fire and the boiler furnishes the proper quantity of 
steam. This is the reverse of true economy, but it sometimes 
happens that it is the only way out of a practical difficulty. 

The engineman has, of course, to give his main attention to the 
track and be on the lookout for signals, etc. Still, he should at 
all times know the condition of the fire, the height of water, and 
pressure of steam. 

The Firing' should be regular and frequent, and the fire itself 
kept constantly in that condition by which it is found to generate 
sufficient steam for the work to be done. It should under no 
circumstances be allowed to get so low as to affect the pressure of 
steam in the boiler. When approaching stations at which there 
is to be a somewhat lengthy stop, the fire may be charged with 
fresh coal and run for a short distance with the fire door open to 
reduce the pressure. When approaching the terminal station, 
the fire should be allowed to burn so low that there shall be only 
steam enough to reach the engine-house. 

The management of the fire depends entirely upon the steaming 
capacity of the boiler, the fuel used, and the service in which the 
engine is employed. 

The Supply of Feed-Water to the boiler should be regular and 
constant. If an injector is used, it should be only of such size 
as will permit a constant flow of water into the boiler. If pumps 
are used, the supply cocks should be adjusted so as to accomplish 
the same thing; in general but one pump is needed to supply the 
boiler under all ordinary conditions. The water should be kept 
at a height which will show two gauges of water when running 
on a level. When running up or down an incline allowance 
must be made for the change in level of water, especially when 
going down grade, that the crown sheet be not exposed to the 
action of the fire by uncovering. 



118 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Grades. — It is important that the water-level be carefully 
attended to when running over steep grades. Before ascending 
such a grade an extra supply of water should be fed into the boiler; 
this extra supply forms a reserve of water already heated to the 
boiling point at the steam pressure then employed. If the pres- 
sure of steam can be carried somewhat higher without blowing off 
at the safety valve, it is a good plan to do so, and will make this 
reserve of hot water in the boiler all the more efficient when 
needed. The engineman must decide for himself the quantity of 
water it is safe to carry over that regularly employed. If too 
much water be fed into the boiler it is very apt to cause priming. 

In running down a grade the water-level will require to be 
nearly as high as when going up a grade. The water should, on 
the steepest descent, cover the rear end of the crown sheet at least 
an inch. 

Features of the Road. — One of the first duties of a person 
employed on a locomotive engine, apart from its care and manage- 
ment is to learn the features of the road. No parts of the road 
require greater vigilance and caution in running over them, than 
the up and down grades. It is quite a common occurrence that in 
addition to these grades there are sharp curves, tunnels, bridges, 
and trestle work. 

It is obvious that mere training in mechanical skill, in technical 
knowledge of the locomotive, or even a thorough knowledge of the 
road bed from one end of the line to another, will not of themselves 
make a man a fit person to have charge of a locomotive. He must 
possess at least this much of knowledge and skill, but he must in 
addition, have a good clear brain, cool judgment, steady nerves, 
good eyesight and entirely free from color-blindness, he must be 
quick to discern and prompt to execute. 

Priming may be caused by impurities in the feed water, but 
oftener perhaps by the insufficiency of the boiler for the duty 
required of it. The evaporative capacity of steam boilers is not as 
a general thing equal to the maximum capacity of the cylinders in 
ordinary passenger and freight engines. The practice is becoming 
more general to furnish larger boilers for the same cylinders than 



PRIMING. 119 

was customary a few years since. "With these larger boilers there 
will also be less of priming. 

Priming may easily be detected by the motion of the water in 
the glass water gauge, or by the "flutter' ' of the gauge cocks when 
opened. Priming may also be detected by the change in the 
sound and color of the exhaust ; the sound being heavier, and the 
escaping steam whiter and has a misty appearance. As soon as 
priming is observed the cylinder cocks should be opened and kept 
open so long as the water is seen coming from them, the fire door 
should be opened, and if there is plenty of water in the boiler the 
feed may be shut off: the throttle valve should be partially closed 
which will allow a pressure of steam to accumulate and so deter- 
mine at once the true water-level, if below that at which it should 
}>e carried, the fire door may be closed and the pump set to work- 
ing, still keeping the throttle partially closed until the water 
begins to rise in the boiler, and the pressure of steam to accumu- 
late, after which the throttle may be again opened gradually, until 
the regular speed is attained. 

Oiling* — This duty usually belongs to the fireman. Good oil, 
and the best oil cups for the purpose, only should be used. When 
arriving at a station one of the first things to be done is to examine 
the several bearings to ascertain whether or not they have become 
hot, dry, or cutting. This can be done very readily by an expe- 
rienced person by sense of touch. Mineral oil is commonly used 
for lubricating but a supply of good lard or sperm oil should be 
constantly at hand for use on hot bearings. 

If the bearing is very hot it should be cooled with water before 
applying the oil. 

The Supply of Water and Fuel in the tender should never be 
allowed to become fully exhausted. The location of these supply 
stations must be exactly known by the engineman and fireman 
and the supplies of both laid in at such stations as may be on the 
side of safety, if no regulation of the road require it to be done at 
particular points on the line. 

Curves. — In approaching curves the speed of a train should be 



120 HAND BOOK FOK STEAM ENGINEERS. 

less than on a straight track, the diminution in speed being in 
proportion to the radius of the curve ; the sharper the curve the 
less should he the speed. The tendency of the train when enter- 
ing upon a curve is to continue in a straight line, and, the greater 
the velocity the greater the danger of running off the track. 
Another reason for a slower speed in passing curves is the short 
distance at which the track can he seen in advance of the train. 
Should there he an obstruction on the track, or a danger signal,, 
the train might not be stopped in time to prevent accident if run- 
ning at a high speed. 

Bridges. — When approaching a stream keep a sharp lookout 
for signals. The train should be slowed down to five miles an 
hour in crossing a bridge of any considerable length ; if it is a 
wooden bridge the ash-pan damper must be closed until the 
opposite shore is reached. In the case of covered bridges, the 
engineman should be specially careful that no sparks or live 
coals and cinders be thrown from the chimney. 

In case the bridge should contain a draw, the train must be 
brought to a full stop before crossing, and should not then 
attempt it until the signal be given that all is clear. 

In Approaching a Station the speed should be reduced so that 
the train will not enter at an unsafe velocity. There are persons- 
who will stand on the track about the stations, and are thus liable 
to be run over ; there is always more or less of driving, loading or 
unloading of goods, etc., which sometimes temporarily encroaches 
upon the train limits. The steam should be shut off from the 
engine at a distance of half or perhaps a full mile before reaching 
a station, depending upon the grade and condition of the track. 

It is safer to enter at too slow a speed than too fast, for it is an 
easy matter to give the cylinders more steam, if necessary, to bring 
the train to the proper position. 

Continuous Brakes are now in such general use that no road is 
considered perfectly equipped which does not have them fitted to 
all the passenger cars on the line. By their application the train 
is placed under complete control of the engineman. The brakes 



COLOR BLINDNESS. 121 

should, in all cases, be applied gradually and so prevent the disa- 
greeable shocks and jerks to which the cars are subjected when 
applied suddenly. 

The Duties of an Engineman are too various to be enumerated 
in a single chapter of a small hand-book like this ; it is intended 
that only the more prominent duties required of him be given. 
A chapter on accidents might be added, but it would carry this 
subject beyond the narrow limits assigned it. In case of accident 
the judgment of the engineman and those employed on the train 
will decide what is best to be done. This mere outline of the 
duties of an engineman and fireman as here given will no doubt 
be of interest to those who wish to know something of what is 
expected of them, but who have no expectation of entering any 
railway service or of having to do the work themselves. 

Color-Blindness is a defect of vision by which the person 
affected is unable, in a greater or less degree, to distinguish colors. 
This defect may either be congenital, L e. color-blind from birth > 
or it may be acquired ; it may also be complete or partial. 

It would be entirely out of place to enter into the causes of 
color-blindness in this little hand-book. The only object in intro- 
ducing the subject at all is to point out some of the possible 
dangers which might result in mistaking one signal for another. 

Total color-blindness is quite rare and represents the entire 
inability of a person to distinguish between colors of any kind. 
To such a person there is simply a gradation of light and shade 
accordingly as the color may be of greater or less intensity. The 
visual effect upon a person who is color-blind in looking at an 
oil painting would be much the same as that upon another who 
could readily distinguish colors, were he to look at a similar draw- 
ing, executed in black crayon instead of colors. Such a person 
could not distinguish between a red, green or blue flag or lantern. 

Partial color-blindness is by no means uncommon, and includes 
such defects of vision as arise from the inability of a person to 
distinguish one or more particular colors from others. Thus a 
person may not be able to distinguish a green from a red flag or 
lantern, yet may be abie to distinguish a bright yellow, blue, and 



122 HAND BOOK FOK STEAM ENGINEERS. 

some other colors. The three kinds of partial color-blindness 
most likely to occur are some of the following: — 

1. Red-blindness. 

2. Green-blindness. 

3. Violet-blindness. 

Although this classification is only partial, and somewhat 
unsatisfactory, it will nevertheless answer our present purpose, as 
the colors generally used in signals are white, green, and red; of 
which w T hite indicates a clear track, green is a signal of caution, 
and red a signal indicating danger and which should cause the 
train to be brought to a full stop at once. The ordinary defect in 
reading signals by one who is j>artially color-blind is that of con- 
founding red with green. 

Any person who possesses this chromatic defect should not for 
a moment think of entering the service of any railway company, 
if he is to be employed on the trains in any capacity in which he 
shall ever be called upon to place or read signals. Especially 
should a person who is in training for a locomotive engineer be 
careful to satisfy himself in regard to this matter. Not the least 
of the requirements for an engineman or fireman should be the 
ability to read signals at night by momentary flashes, or the deter- 
mining of colored lanterns at long distances. 

Color-Blindness in Railway Employees.— -The evidence fur- 
nished by recent examinations of railway men discloses the fact 
that color-blindness exists to an extent scarcely suspected a few 
years ago. In all cases w r here there is direct conflict of evidence 
as to the state of the signals, it would be at least advisable to have 
the witnesses tested for color-blindnesss. 

" Dr. Keyser,* of the Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, has 
recently examined a number of railway employees engaged on the 
systems centering in that city, and according to his report to the 
State Medical Society, 3} per cent, of the whole number mistook 
colors, and 8£ per cent, additional were unable to distinguish 
accurately the shades of colors. Among those examined were two 
men w r ho could not distinguish red from green on tests, had 
educated themselves to know that red was an intense color, and 

'English Mechanic, 1879. 



RULES FOR EXGINEMEX. 123 

thus distinguished bright red signals, but at the same time bright 
greens and other bright colors were red to them. For these they 
would stop their trains, and so err on the safe side. On the other 
hand, dark reds, dark greens, and browns were all the same to 
them, thus making those colors useless as signals. Another pecu- 
liarity in one case was the ability to distinguish bright red close 
by, but not at a distance. 

" A color correctly recognized as bright red at three feet was 
invariably called green at ten feet and beyond." 

Rules for Enginemen.— The following rules are those adopted 
and in use on the Pennsylvania railroad, and are substantially 
those in use by all the railway companies in this country. 

Enginemen report to, and receive their instructions from the 
division superintendent. When in the shops, they are under the 
direction of the master mechanic, or foreman of the shop. 

They will obey the orders of the road foreman of engines, in 
regard to the working of their engines, and the proper use of fuel, 
stores, etc. 

They must obey the orders of the train master, depot master, or 
despatcher, in regard to shifting and making up trains. 

They are under the orders of the conductor of the train in regard 
to starting, stopping, speed and general management of the train, 
shifting cars, etc., but they will not obey any order that may en- 
danger the safety of the trade, or require violation of rules. 

They must have their engines in good working order, supplied 
with the necessary stores and tools, fuel and water, and the steam 
up, ready to attach to the train, at least thirty minutes before the 
schedule time for starting, and as much earlier as directed by the 
foremen of the shop, or despatcher. 

They must have in their possession a copy of the rules and 
regulations, the time table, and a full set of signals in good order, 
and ready for immediate use. 

They will be furnished a watch by the division superintendent, 
and will be held responsible for its safe keeping. They must reg- 
ulate it by the standard clock of the company, and compare time 
with the conductor of the train at the commencement of each trip. 

They must obey promptly all signals given by station agents, 



124 HAND BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

telegraph operators, track repair men, watchmen, conductors, or 
trainmen, even though they may think such signals unnecessary. 
When in doubt as to she meaning of a signal, they must stop and 
ascertain the cause, and if a wrong signal is shown, they will 
report the fact to the division superintendent. 

They must note that the day and night watchmen are at their 
posts, and report to the division superintendent any neglect of 
duty they may observe. 

They must use special care in coupling and shifting cars, to avoid 
injuring the train-men, and must always start and stop their 
trains cautiously, without sudden jerking. 

They must not permit sticks of wood, burning cotton waste, or 
hot cinders to be thrown from the engine or tender while in 
motion, and must use every precaution against fire when passing 
bridges or buildings. 

They are not permitted to clean their ash pans on the main 
track, unless at points specially designated by the division super- 
intendent. 

They must not leave their engine during the trip, except in 
cases of necessity, and must always leave the fireman or some 
other competent person in charge of it. 

They will be provided with checks for wood, coal, oil, and tallow, 
and they will not be furnished with fuel or stores, unless a check 
for the correct amount is given the station or storekeeper. 

They must report the condition of their engine to the master- 
mechanic, or foreman of the shop, at the end of each trip, and will 
assist when called upon, in making any repairs that may be 
necessary. 

They may be requited when not in active service on the road to 
work in the shops, and will then be subject to shop rules. 

Rules for Firemen. — Firemen, when on the road, are under 
the direction of the engineman. When in the shop, they are 
under the direction of the master mechanic, or foreman of the 
shop. 

They will obey the orders of the road foreman of engines in 
regard to the proper use of fuel, and manner of firing. 

They must be with their engines at least thirty minutes before 



RULES FOK ROAD-FOREMEN OF ENGINES. 125 

the time of starting, and conform to any directions they may 
receive from the foreman of shop, or despatcher. 

They must supply the engine regularly with fuel and water, 
at the discretion of the engineman, assist in oiling, and use the 
tender brake in accordance with his orders and signals. 

They will assist in keeping a constant lookout upon the track, 
and must instantly give the engineman notice of any .obstruction 
they may perceive. 

They must make themselves thoroughly familiar with the train 
rules, x>articularly those that apply to the protection of the train, 
and must understand the use of the signals, and be prepared to 
use them promptly. 

They must take charge of the engine should the engineman at 
any time be absent, and not leave it until his return, nor suffer 
any person not duly authorized to be upon it. 

They will not attempt to run an engine in the absence of the 
engineman without permission from the division superintendent, 
unless under some emergency they be directed to do so by the 
conductor, or some officer in authority. 

They must assist in cleaning and polishing their engines after 
every trip, and in making repairs when required. 

They may be required, when not in active service on the road, 
to w T ork in the shops, and will then be subject to shop rules. 

Rules for Road-Foreman of Engines. — Road-foremen of engines 
report to and receive their orders from the division superintendent. 

They will obey all orders of the superintendent of motive 
power, and must rej>ort to him as he may direct. 

They are required to ride frequently upon the engines, and give 
instructions to enginemen and firemen in regard to the proper 
working and firing of engines, w T ith a view to obtaining the best 
results in the consumption of fuel and stores. 

They will give particular attention to the engines for generating 
steam, and observe that the regulation pressure is not exceeded, 
and that the boilers are washed out as often as may be necessary. 

They must see that the engines are equipped with signals, tools 
and every article necessary to their efficient working, and that the 
injectors, air-pumps, etc., are in good working order. 



126 HANI) BOOK FOK STEAM ENGINEERS. 

They will advise the division superintendent of the number of 
cars to be allowed to each class of engines, and report to him 
when engineers of through freight trains are not given cars to 
their full capacity, or when any engine is overloaded. 

They will consult and advise frequently with the master 
mechanic and shop foreman, in regard to the daily condition and 
requirements of engines running upon their divisions. 

They will report to the division superintendent the qualifica- 
tions of enginemen and firemen, and any violation of rules or 
neglect of duty which may come to their knowledge, and keep 
him advised of all matters relating to the economical and efficient 
working of the engines and their crews. 

Signals. — There is no established code of signals in use by the 
railroads of the United States; the following are those of the 
Pennsylvania Eailroad, and are in general those employed by 
other roads : 

Red signifies danger, and is a signal to stop. 

Green signifies caution, and is a signal to go slowly. 

White signifies safety, and is a signal to go on. 

Green and white is a signal to be used to stop trains at flag- 
stations. 

Blue is a signal to be used by car inspectors. 

Flags of the proper color must be used by day, and lamps of 
the proper color must be used at night, or in foggy weather. Red 
flags or red lanterns must never be used as caution signals, they 
always signify danger — stop. 

A lantern swung across the track, a flag, hat, or any object 
waved violently by any person on the track, signifies danger, and 
is a signal to stop. 

An exploding cap or torpedo clamped to the top of the rail, is 
an extra danger signal, to be used in addition to the regular sig- 
nals, at night, in foggy weather, and in cases of accident or 
emergency, when other signals cannot be distinctly seen or relied 
upon. The explosion of one of these signals is a warning to stop 
the train immediately ; the explosion of two of these signals is a 
warning to check the speed of the train immediately and look out 
for the regular danger signal. 



SIGNALS. 127 

A fusee is an extra caution signal, to be lighted and thrown on 
the track at frequent intervals, by the flagmen of passenger trains 
at night, whenever the train is not making schedule speed between 
telegraph stations. 

A train finding a fusee burning upon the track must come to a 
full stop, and not proceed until it is burned out. 

Engineman's Signals. — By signals. One short blast of the 
whistle is a signal to apply the brakes— stop. (Thus - ). 

Two long blasts of the whistle is a signal to throw off the brakes. 
(Thus ). 

Two short blasts of the w T histle when running, is an answer to 
signal of conductor to stop at next station. (Thus — ). 

Three short blasts of the whistle when standing, is a signal that 
the engine or train will back (Thus ). 

Three short blasts of the whistle when running, is a signal to be 
given by passenger trains, when carrying signals for a following 
train, to call the attention of trains they pass, to the signals. 
(Thus ). 

Four long blasts of the whistle is a signal to call in the flagman 
or signalman* (Thus ). 

Four short blasts of the whistle is the engineman's call for sig- 
nals. (Thus ). 

Two long followed by two short blasts of a whistle when 
running, is a signal for approaching a road crossing at grade. 
(Thus ). 

Five short blasts of a whistle, is a signal to the flagman to go 
back and protect the rear of the train. (Thus ). 

A succession of short blasts of the whistle is an alarm for cattle, 
and calls attention of trainmen to danger ahead. 

A blast of the whistle of five seconds duration, is a signal for 
approaching stations, railroad crossings, and drawbridges. 

Conductors' Signals.— By bell cord. A signal bell is placed 
over-head inside the engine cab, a cord is attached to this bell and 
passes through to the rear platform of the train. 

One tap of the signal bell when the engine is standing, is a 
notice to start. 



128 HANI) BOOK FOR STEAM ENGINEERS. 

Two taps of the signal hell when the engine is standing, is a 
notice to call in the flagman. 

Two taps of the signal hell when the engine is running, is a 
notice to stop at once. 

Three taps of the signal hell when the engine is standing, is 
a notice to hack the train. 

Three taps of the signal hell when the engine is running, is a 
notice to stop at the next station. 

Signals by Lamp:— 

A lamp sw T ung across the track, is*a signal to stop. 

A lamp raised and lowered vertically, is a signal to move ahead. 

A lamp swung in a circle, is a signal to move hack. 



INDEX. 



Air for Combustion 1G 

Air Pumps 71 

Allen, J. M 56 

Anthracite Coal , 9 

Approaching a Station , 120 

Automatic Engine, care of... 84 

Balancing Slide Valves 62 

Beam Engines 64 

Bituminous Coal 9. 11 

Blistered Plates 51 

Blow-off Cock 42 

Blow-off Pipe 34 

Blowing out Boilers 42 

Blue for Signals ....126 

Boiler Appendages 31 

Boiler Covering 19. 96 

Boiler Explosions...., 53 

Boi ler for Planing Mill 24 

Boiler for Portables 86 

Boiler, Materials for 28 

Boiler Power 29 

Boiler, raising steam on 113 

Boiler, selection of 23 

Bottom-blow 92 

Brake for Portables ,...105 

Brick for Furnaces ,.. 37 

Bridges 120 

Bridge-wall..... 38 

Carbon and Oxygen 8 

Carbonate of Lime 47 

Carbonic Acid 8 

Carbonic Oxide 8 

Care of a Boiler 40 

Careof an Engine 76 

Care of a Locomotive 112 

Careof a Portable 108 

Cast-iron Fronts for Porta- 
bles 89 

Causes of Explosions,. 53 

—9 



Check Valve 34 

Check Valves for Portables, 93 

Chimneys 39 

Circulation of Water 18 

Circulation in Boilers 14. 24 

Cleaning Tubes 42 

Clinkers 13 

Coal , 9 

Coal and Wood, heating pow- 
er of 12 

Coal Gas 8 

Coal per Horse Power 18 

Collapse 26 

Color-Blindness 121 

Combustion 7 

Condensation in Cylinders... 20 

Condensation of Steam 70 

Condensers 70 

Conductors' Signals 127 

Connecting-Rod 101 

Connecting-Rod Brasses 80 

Construction of Engines 14 

Continuous Brakes 120 

Copper Thimbles for Tubes, 89 
Corrosion of Boiler Plates... 57 

Cost of an Engine 66 

Couplings, breaking of 115 

Covering Boilers and Pipes... 19 

Cranked Shaft 102 

Crank- Pin 80. 102 

Cross-Head 101 

Crown-Sheet, in Portables... 87 

Curves 119 

Cushioning 78 

Cylinder Boilers 24 

Cylinders, condensation in... 20 

Cylinders, for Portables 98 

Cylinders of large diameter.. 64 

Directions for running a Por- 
table 106 



130 



INDEX. 



Distilled Water 46 

Drain Cocks 105 

Dry Pipes 36 

Ebullition 46 

Eccentric, care of 103 

Eccentric Straps . 83 

Economical Engines 68 

Economy in Locomotives...... 11 6 

Engineman, duties of... 112. 121 
Engineman, qualifications fori 18 

Engineman, rules for 123 

Engineman's Signals 127 

Evaparation per H. P 30 

Evaporation per lb. of Coal.. 18 

Evaporative Tests 50 

Exhaust pipes for Portables..l05 

Exhaust Steam 21 

Exhaust Steam, recovery of 

heat from 14 

Expansion, gain by 68 

Expansion of Steam 116 

Explosions 53 

External Corrosion 57 

Features of a Kailroad 118 

Feed-pipe 32 

Feed-water, supply of 117 

Ferrules for Tubes 88 

Fire-door King 89 

Fire-box Boilers 27 

Fire-box, effects of heat on...H3 

Firemen, rules for 123 

Firing 40 

Firing, loss by bad 15 

Firing on Locomotives 117 

Fitting Slide Valves 83 

Five-flue Boilers 27 

Flags 126 

Flue Boilers 26 

Flues, diameter of 26 

Flv-wheel 74 

Fly-wheel for Portables 102 

Foaming, or Priming 43. 108 

Force Blast 16 

Foundation for Engine 68 

Foundation for Furnaces 37 

Fuel 7 

Furnace 31 

Furnace, construction of 14 

Furnaces for Boilers 37 

Fusee, signal 127 



Fusible Plug 42. 90 

Gauge Cocks 34. 41 

Gauge Cocks for Portables.... 91 
Glass Gauges for Portables... 91 

Glass Water Gauge 35 

Governor 75 

Governor for Portables 104 

Governor Repairs 84 

Grades, running over 118 

Grate Bars 38 

Grates, height of...... 9 

Green for Signals 126 

Guides for Cross-head 101 

Hammer Test 59 

Hand-holes 90 

Hard Water, boilers for 23- 

Heat and Steam 14 

Heaters 94 

Heat, effect on a fire-box 113 

Heat, effect of on water 14 

Heat, loss of 15 

Heat, measurement of 17 

Heat, mechanical equivalent 17 
Heating Power of Carbon... 9 

Heat, transfer of 15 

Heat Unit 17 

High Piston Speed 22 

High Speed Engines 65 

Horizontal Engine 65 

Horizontal Tubular Boiler... 25 

Horse Power 75 

Horse Power of a Boiler 29 

Hot Bearings 119 

Hydraulic Test 58 

Hydrogen 8 

Impurities in Water 45 

Injection Pipes 70 

Injectors 33. 94. 117 

Inspection 56 

Inspirators 33. 94 

Internal Corrosion 58 

Iron for Boilers 28 

Jet Condenser 71 

Joule's Equivalent 17 

Kevser, Dr., on color-blind- 
ness 122 

Knocking 80 



INDEX. 



131 



Lagging Cylinders 99 

Lanterns 126 

Lead 78 

Leaks in Boilers 51 

Leaving a Station 115 

Link Motion 104 

Location of Engine 67 

Locomotive, care of 112 

Loose Eccentric 78 

Loss in Steam Engines 15 

Low Water 43. 108 

Lubrication 77 

Magnesia in Scale 47 

Main Bearings 84. 102 

Measurement of Heat 17 

Neglect of Steam Boilers 60 

Oiling 119 

Open-bottom Fire-boxes 90 

Over-pressure 53 

Oxygen and Carbon 8 

Packing 79 

Patching Boilers 52 

Petroleum for Scale 49 

Pipes, covering for... 19 

Piston 100 

Piston Packing 79 

Piston Valve for Portables... 99 

Planing Mill, boiler for 24 

Portable Engine 86 

Portable Engine, directions 

for using 106 

Potatoes, to remove scale 48 

Pressure Gauge 41 

Preventives for Scale 48 

Priming 43. 108. 118 

Pumps 33. 40 

Pumps for Portable Engines 92 

Radiation 16 

Raising Steam on a Boiler.... 113 
Rear Bearing for Portable 

Engines 102 

Red for Signals 126 

Relief and Safety Stop-valve 93 

Repairs 83 

Reserve Power of a Boiler... 25 

Rules for Enginemen 123 

Rules for Firemen 124 



Rules for Road-foremen 125 

Rule for Safety-valve 32 

Safety-valve 31 

Safety-valve for Portable En- 
gines 94 

Safe Working Pressure 55 

Sand, use of in starting 115 

Scale 47 

Scale Preventive 48 

Selection of a Boiler 23 

Selection of an Engine 61 

Shavings, firing with 24 

Signals 126 

Signals by Lamp 128 

Six-inch Flue Boilers 27 

Slide-valve 62. 77 

Slide-valve, fitting of 83 

Slide-valve for Portable En- 
gines 99 

Smoke 16 

Smoke-box 96 

Soda for Scale 48 

Speed of Trains 116 

Starting a Train 115 

Stays in Portable Boilers 88 

Steam Blower 95 

Steam Boiler Furnaces 37 

Steam-dome 35 

Steam-drum 35 

Steam Engine, losses in 17 

Steam-gauge 35. 41. 95 

Steam Jackets 19. 69. 82. 98 

Steam-pipe 34 

Steel Fire-boxes 113 

Steel for Boilers 28 

Strainer 34 

Strainer and Foot- valve 93 

Stuffing Boxes 79 

Sulphate of Lime 47 

Superheated Steam 21 

Supply pipe for Portable En- 
gines 93 

Surface Blow 91 

Surface Condenser 72 

Tannate of Soda 48 

Temperature of Escaping 

Gases 15 

Testing Boilers 58 

Thermal Unit 17 

Tools for a Portable Engine.,106 



132 



INDEX. 



Torpedoes 126 

Traction Engines 109 

Transfer of Heat 14 

Tubes, diameter of 26 

Tubes, effect of heat on 113 

Tube Sheets 89 

Tubes in Portable Engines... 88 

Tubes, length of 26 

Tubes, space between 26 

Tubular Boilers 23 

Unit of Heat 17 

Valve Connection for Por- 
table Engines 103 

Vertical Boilers 27 

Vertical Boilers for Portables 97 

Vertical Engines 64 

Valve Rod 101 



Water 44 

Water-bottom for Portable 

Boilers 89 

Water, effect of heat on 14 

Water, evaporation of 12 

Water-front for Portable Boi- 
lers 89 

Wagon for Portable Engines.,105 

Water Gauges 41 

Whistle 95 

Whistle, use of 115 

White for signals 126 

Wood and Coal, heating pow- 
er of 12 

Wood as Fuel 9 

Wood, composition of 10 

Zinc for Boiler Scale 49 



*A PRACTICAL TREATISE* 

ON 

HIGH-PRESSUEE 




Including Results of Recent Experimental Tests of 
Boiler Materials, together with a description 
of approved Safety Apparatus, Steam 
Pumps, Injectors and Econ- 
omizers in actual use. 



By WILLIAM M. BAKE. 

One Vol. 8vo., 462 pages; 204 engravings. PRICE, $4.00« 

[From Boston Journal of Commerce.] 

"This book is written by a practical steam engineer of long ex- 
perience, who certainly has the faculty of saying what he wants to 
say in a way that is readily understood. He does not deal with 
marine boilers, but has illustrated very nearly every other kind of 
steam boiler of the stationary type of which we know, showing 
their various advantages in a comparative manner, simply from 
an unbiased standpoint. Facts are given rather than opinions ; 
and where nothing is known of the fact, he does not base any value 
on 'somebody's' opinion. The illustrations are admirable, and the 
whole tone of the book is one of careful reasoning ; the tables are 
admirably arranged and very comprehensive, without being prolix 
or tiresome. It is strictly a practical book by a practical man ; 
does not advocate anybody's theory, but gives facts well illustra- 
ted, carefully compiled, and treats of the subjects in a way which 
we admire very much. Boiler setting, grate bars, natural and 
forced drafting, different kinds of furnaces, different feeding appa- 
ratus, injectors, inspirators, automatic feeders for heaters of differ- 
ent kinds, economizers, safety apparatus, gauges— both pressure 
and recording, water gauges, gauge cocks, safety plugs, incrustation 
and corrosion, pitting and grooving, are all treated in a sensible, 
rational way. The book should have a large sale among men who 
are seeeking information." 

We will send the above book to any address, postage prepaid, 
upon receipt of the price. Address, 

YOHN BROTHERS, Publishers, 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



■THE- 



IIDIIIIPILIS lECItllCIL JOURNAL 

r-^^A MONTHLY JOURNAL^-; 

DEVOTED TO 

PRACTICAL MECHANISM AND THE PROMOTION OF 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 



OS^SUBSCRIPTION PRICE/SD 

ONE 1E4R, FIFTY CENTS, 



Handsomely Illustrated Every Month 

With Engravings of New Machinery, Etc., Etc. 



Jlgp^Manufacturers will find it an invaluable advertising medium 
through which to reach users of Iron and Wood-Working Machin- 
ery and Supplies throughout the entire West, Northwest and 
Southwest. 

OADVERTISING RATESO 

JVEade Known on Application to the Publishers. 



— SEND FOR SPECIMEN COPY TO - 



J. H. Kerrick & Co., Publishers, 

DELAWARE AND MARYLAND STS., 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



Will send this book and the Indianapolis Mechanical Journal 
one year for $1.00. 



WE HAVE THE LAEGEST 



ie 



IMIIIIif HFOf 

IN THE UNITED STATES, 

AND ARE PREPARED TO FILL ORDERS FOR ANYTHING IN THE LINE OF 

IRON AND WOOD-WORKING MACHINERY AND SUPPLIES 
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. 




We Carry in Stock a Full Supply of the Following Goods ; 

ENGINES, BOILERS, KNOWLES* STEAM PUMPS, HANCOCK 
INSPIRATORS, ENGINE GOVERNORS ( JUDSON, GARD- 
NER, ROBERTS, BROWN & MATTESON), RUB- 
BER AND LEATHER BELTING, 
PACKING, ETC. 

A Pull Line of TANITE Emery Wheels Kept in Stock. 

If you want anything in our line, write us, giving full description. 

J. H. KERRICK & CO., 

Cor. Maryland and Delaware Sts., INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



ESTABLISHED 1855. 



INCORPORATED 1865. 



R. T. CRANE, Pres. S. W. ADAMS, Sec. C. R. CRANE, Vice Pres. 
J. W. SHINKLE, Treas. 



CRANE BROTHERS 




GENERAL OFFICES, 10 WEST JEFFERSON ST., 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



WROUGHT IRON PIPE, STEAM PUMPS, 

STEAM AND GAS FITTINGS, 

Steam and Hydraulic Freight and Passenger Elevators, Steam 
Hoisting Engines for Furnaces, Mines, Etc., 
Stationary Steam Engines, Etc. 



STILW'ELL'S 

Patent Lime-Extracting 




FILTER 



COMBINED 

Is the ONLY LIME-EXTRACTING HEATER that will 

*ogtle im 13 

REMOVES 

All Impurities 

From the Water Before it 
Enters the Boiler. 

THOROUGHLY TESTED, OVER 

0^3,000^© 

of them in daily use. This cut is a fac- 
simile of the appearance of a No. 5 Heater 
at work on ordinary lime-water when the 
door was removed after the Heater had 
been running two weeks. 

Illustrated Catalogues. 




Bierce Manufacturing 60., 



COPE & MAXWELL MAN'FG CO. 




Si « 

i. 3 

•01 



L© 



Steam Pump Works, Hamilton, Ohio. 

The highest assurance is given to parties having use for STEAM 
PUMPS of any kind, that in purchasing the COPE & MAXWELL 
PATENTS they are obtaining the very best, made from new patterns 
and designs* The following styles are among their principal varieties : 

STEAM PISTON PUMPS, STEAM PLUNGER PUMPS, FIRE and 
WATER WORKS PUMPS, ACID and SYRUP PUMPS, TANK 
PUMPS, MINING PUMPS, DOUBLE-END STEAM PUMPS, 
CRANK and FLY WHEEL PUMPS and BOILER FEED- 
ERS, POWER PUMPS, AIR PUMPS, UPRIGHT 
BOILER FEEDERS, COMBINED WELL 
PUMP and BOILER FEEDERS, UP- 
RIGHT DOUBLE-ACTING WELL 
PUMPS, PORTABLE STEAM 
BOILER and PUMPS. 

PUMPS FOR EVERY PURPOSE. 

Send for Reduced Price List and 
Illustrated Circular. 

COPE & MAXWELL MANUFACTURING CO,, 

HAMILTON, OHIO, U. S. A. 



J. M. MASON, 

Manufacturer and Dealer in 

PORTABLE-HOISTING 



AND- 



8TAWNABYSTEAM ENGINES 

BOILERS, ETC. 



p-t 



c$ 



o 



.«8 







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CD 

1 J» 










ZKarverlilll Street, 



XT. S. A. 



KNOWLES' 



Patent Steam Pumps 

-**THE STAJS*DAED.iN- 

Bvery Variety of Steam Pumping 1 Machinery 
Furnished Under Guarantees. 




Water Woi'ks Pumps. Vacuum Pumps. 

Mining Pumps. Air Pumps and Condensers. 

Automatic Air Pumps. Fire Pumps. 

Distillery and Brewery Pumps. 

Boiler Feed Pumps, Etc. 

The Most Complete Establishment of its Kind in the World. 

CATALOGUES, ETC., ON APPLICATION TO 



86 LIBERTY ST., NEW YORK. 



BOSTON HOUSE: 

U and 16 Federal St. 



WORKS; 

Warren, Mass. 



ST. LOUIS BOILER YARD. 



JOSEPH F. WANGLER, 



MANUFACTURER OF 






2-U 






40F EVERY DESCRIPTION*- 

LARD AND OIL TANKS, COOLERS, KET- 
TLES, PANS, ETC. ALSO 
ALL KINDS OF SHEET IRON WORK. 

General Repairing Done Promptly. 

N.MAIN STREET, N EAR CARR. 



0*019 to 1093 O 




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A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE 

COMBUSTION OF COAL | 

Including 1 Descriptions of Various Mechanical De- 
vices for the Economic Generation of Heat 
by the Combustion of Fuel, whether 
Solid, Liquid or Gaseous. 



By "willi^:^: im:. baK/K/* 



One Vol. 8vo., 315 pages ; illustrated with wood-cuts and folding lithographic; 
plates. PRICE, $2.50. 

[From the Manufacturer and Builder.] 

"This is an excellent book, which, within a moderate compass, 
presents the theory of the Combustion of Coal, with a view to in- 
struct the greater number of men who need this knowledge, but 
thus far have been debarred from it by reason of the highly scien- 
tific style in which books on this subject are generally written. 
The author does not claim to present new views, and we rejoice at 
this disclaimer, as the accepted theory is now all that can be de- 
sired ; but what he does claim is the presentation of the subject in 
a correct and intelligible manner. He does not confine himself 
to coal alone, but also gives descriptions of various mechanical de- 
vices for the economic generation of heat, whether by solid, liquid 
or gaseous fuel. The paper and print are excellent, and as great 
a credit to the publishers as the contents are to the author." 

We will send the above book to any address, postage prepaid, 
upon receipt of the price. 

Address, 

YOHN BROTHERS, Publishers, 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.. 



J. H. KERRICK & CO., 

254 First Ave., South, 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

IRON AND WOOD-WORKING 

MACHINERY, 

A7id Supplies of Every Description. 




jifft^- 



A Full Line of Engines, Boilers, Knowles' Steam Pumps, In- 
jectors, Feed Water Heaters, Governors, Steam Packing 
and Engineers' Supplies Always on Hand. A Full Line 
of TAMTE EMERY WHEELS Kept in Stock. 

Steam users will find it to their advantage to get our prices on anything; 
in this LINE before purchasing. Send for circular of our 

IMPROVED STEAM JET PUMP. 

J. H. Kerrick & Co., 



254 First Avenue, South. 



MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



FT. W^YNE gPETY Y^LYE W0RKg 



MANUFACTURER AND PROPRIETOR OF THE 

iiS tiii-f lilt! fit! 

PATENTED MAY 4th, 1875, and JULY 24th, 1877. 

THIS 




Is Prompt and Efficient. 

Will not Corrode or Stick, is Entirely- 
Free from Friction, will Close Down 
without losing any of the fixed 
or desired pressure. Is 
Perfectly Automatic, 
and is not only 
A Safety Valve in name, but is, in fact, 

A WATCHMAN 

Against the destruction of Life, * 
Limb and Property. 



Parties wishing to give my valve a trial, will please send 
for Circular and Price List. 

OFFICE, No, 95 BARR STREET, CORNER WAYNE, 



^0BE W E]S6ip 66YEIW*- 

^WITH ADJUSTABLE VALVE. SUTCUFFE'S i PATENT. > 

THE MOST SENSITIVE GOVERNOR IN USE. 




The valve in this Governor is hollow and 
turned to fit the chamber, and suspended by 
a brass rod, the sides of the chamber forming 
a seat for the valve, thereby avoiding all 
frictiou. The steam passes through into the 
valve and then into the steam chest, prevent- 
ing the cutting of the seat as in other Gov- 
ernors. The balls have a hole bored through 
the centre, then counter-bored to admit a 
tempered spiral steel spring. A steel pin is 
turned with a collar on the outer end so 
that it may fit loosely each end of the balls, 
and fastened to the lower sleeve, permitting 
only of a lateral motion to the balls due the 
centrifugal force. The balls are connected 
to the top sleeve by a cam motion with an 
anti- friction roller which gives a direct mo- 
tion to the valve below. At the top is a 
hand wheel and jam nut, by which the valve 
may readily be adjusted to rtgulate the 
speed of the engine, while the Governor is 
in motion. These Governors are more sim- 
ple, have less wearing parts than others, are 
Warranted to give Perfect Satisfaction, and 
are sent out on trial. Try one. 



Size of Valve, 






Diameter of 


or Diameter of Steam 


PLAIN. 


FINISHED. 


Cylinder 


Pipe. 


Price. 


Price. 


suitable for 


Y % inch 


$15 00 


$17 00 


2 to 3 inches. 


% ' 




16 00 


17 00 


2 to 3 * 




1 ' 




18 00 


20 00 


3 to 4 « 




Vi ' 




20 00 


23 00 


4 to 5 ' 




IX ' 




22 00 


26 00 


5 to 7 « 




2 




26 00 


31 00 


7 to 9 < 




2% ' 




34 00 


40 00 


9 to 12 ■ 




3 




42 00 


49 00 


12 to 14 ' 




3J* ' 




50 00 


58 00 


14 to 17 « 




4 < 




57 00 


67 00 


17 to 20 ■ 




5 




80 00 


100 00 







fiQP The Speed for each Governor is Stamped on it. "S3ft 
Among others who have sold and used them are the Delamaterlron Works, New York; 
Erie City Iron Works; Burden Iron Works, Brooklyn; Belcher & Bagnall, New York 
agents; Bay State Iron Works of Erie, Penn. ; Supplee Engine Co., Columbia, Penn. ; 
John Best, Lancaster, Penn. ; The New York Herald; B. Deeley & Co. Iron Works, 
New York ; Colgate & Co's Soap Factory ; Quintard Iron Works, New York ; J. H. Ker- 
rick & Co., Indianapolis ; Brumer & Duncan, Alton, 111; and Green & Lawton, Wabash, 
Tnd. 

DWIGHT ROBERTS, Manufacturer, 

291 W. ELEVENTH ST., NEW YOBK. 



PATENT GOVERNOR 

The Most Economical, Durable and Popular Governor in the Market. 

Perfectly adapted to every variety of Steam Engine, of whatever 

size, and especially adapted to Portable Farm Engines 

on account of its extreme sensitiveness and 

quick action. 

This branch of the trade alone will take over 2,000 Governors this year. 






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Our Adjustable Speed gives a variation of over 50 per cent. 
Our Automatic Stop-Motion is unfailing in action. 
Our Composition Yalves and Seats have never been known to 
steam-cut or rust. 

Furnished by dealers generally. For Circulars and Price-list, address 

©bas- 'Waters §§ ©©«* 

U OLIYER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



STAR RUBBER GO. 



TRENTON, N. J. 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



pi*** IN!* faim 



FOR MECHANICAL PURPOSES. 



Wringer Rolls, 

Grain Drill Tubes, 

Piston Packing. 



WRITE FOR PRICES and DISCOUNTS. 



TZHZE 

Harris-Gorliss Engine 

Built by WM. A. HARRIS, Providence, R. I., 
Has no Rival in the following points of excellence: 

ECONOMY OF STEAM AND FUEL. 

DURABILITY OF CONNECTED BOILERS. 
DURABILITY OF ENGINE. 

ECONOMY OF OIL. 

AND 

Increased Wear of Grates, Furnace, Pumps, Pipes, and all that 
Relates to the Production of Power. 



The Regularity of Motion 

of the Harris-Corliss Engine, under varying loads and 

varying steam pressures, is the marvel of engineers 

and steam users, and is due to features peculiar 

to this engine, and found in none other. 



THE STOP MOTION ON THE REGULATOR 

effectually prevents the engine from running away, should 
the regulator, for any cause, fail to perform its duty. 

*^The Regulating Mechanism is entirely independent 
of the Valve Motion and immediately under the Eye of the 
Engineer. *"©& 

The Patent Self-Packing Valve-Stems 

dispense with Stuffing Boxes and Packing, and the 

power expended in moving the valve gear 

is the least possible. 



The per centage of net effective power ; the power real- 
ized from a given piston speed and diameter of cylinder, 
and the power realized from a given expenditure of fuel, 
is greater with the Harris-Corliss Engine than with any 
other. 




THE LOSS OF POWER 

In Overcoming Frictional Resistances 



ff IS LES S 

In the Harris-Corliss Engine than Any Other. 

THE BABBITT & HARRIS 

Patent Piston Packing 

Is acknowledged by Engine Builders to be the Best in Existence, 
as attested by years of use, and the adoption of it by nearly every reputa- 
ble Builder of Steam Engines in the country. 

The Harris-Corliss Engines are symmetrically proportioned to the 
diameter of cylinder and stroke of piston, and built to scale drawings. 
All the small parts are made to gauge, and carried in stock. The cylinders 
are of hard, strong irow, and the crank-shafts of superior quality ham- 
mered wrought iron. The bearings on the crank-shafts are equal in 
length to the diameter of cylinder, and in diameter to half the diameter 
of cylinder. 

TIHIIE 

STEAM m EXHAUST VALVE-SEATS 

Are recessed, to avoid wearing shoulders on the Seats, or chafing the 
edges of Valves. 



— The Displacement of Other Engines by — 

The HARRIS-CORLISS INCREASES the BOILER CAPACITY 

from 25 to 50 per cent., and in many instances the introduction of 

this engine has prolonged the usefulness of boilers 

that otherwise required renewal. 



• The Harris-Corliss Engine is TJnequaled by any of its competitors in 

GENERAL DESIGN, WEIGHT and SYMMETRY of PARTS, 

QUALITY of MATERIALS, WORKMANSHIP and FINISH, 

And with my improved facilities for manufacturing I can iurnish engines quick- 
er than any other builder . 

My engines, at remote distances, can be repaired as soon as express can return 
with a duplicate piece. Send order by telegraph for duplicate pieces. Address 

WILLIAM A. HARRIS, 

PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



THS 



Atlas-Corliss Engine 



IS THE 



Latest arid Best Corliss Engine in t(je JJarket. 




We invite especial attention to the following points of 
superiority : 

i. SEPARATE STEAM AND EXHAUST-VALVE 
MOVEMENTS. The Steam Valves are operated inde- 
pendently of the exhaust-valves, and have a range of cut- 
off from o to y± stroke, a feature peculiar to this engine 
and furnished by no other builder. 

2. REMOVABLE VALVE SEATS, allowing im- 
mediate replacement in case of injury or long wear. 






3. IMPROVED STEAM VALVES giving double 
the opening for the same movement usually given by 
other builders. The valves in this engine may be with- 
drawn and replaced at any time without disturbing the 
valve connections. 

4. IMPROVED GOVERNOR with positive movement 
giving the utmost regularity of motion. Self-adjusting to 
varying conditions of load without appreciable variation 
in the speed of the engine. An improved device by 
which the engine is immediately stopped in case any acci- 
dent occurs to the governor, is fitted to all Corliss engines 
of our manufacture. 

5. THE MAIN BEARING is contained in the same 
casting with the frame, and is fitted with wedge adjust- 
ment to side boxes. The cross-head guides are made re- 
movable, and can easily be repaired or replaced without 
disturbing the main casting. 

6. THE HIGHEST EFFICIENCY, economy and 
durability are to be had in this engine. 

O'LLUSTRATED PAMPHLETSO 

will be sent to any address upon application. 

ATLAS ENGINE WORKS, 

INDIANAPOLIS, 

IND. 



THE INDICATOR, 

An Illustrated Journal of Mechanical Engineering 1 and 
Applied Science. 



Edited by WILLIAM M. BARR. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT ONE DOLLAR PER 
YEAR. SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS. 



It is the intention to make this Journal a medium for the pre- 
sentation of original and selected papers upon subjects relating to 
Mechanical Engineering; engravings will be made to better illus- 
trate the subject-matter whenever it is thought they would add to 
its value. 

Each number will have a double page folding plate, containing 
an engraving of a new machine, engine, or working drawing, to 
which reference will be had in the text; this will be furnished 
with the paper without extra cost. 

Original papers on various engineering subjects are now in prepar- 
ation for this Journal, and will appear from time to time, amply 
illustrated with suitable engravings specially prepared. 

Reprints from foreign Scientific Journals will also be made, that 
our readers may know what is being done abroad, and any engrav- 
ings which may accompany the paper reprinted will be reproduced 
in fac simile. 

We extend a cordial invitation to Engineers, Draftsmen, Manu- 
facturers, Machinists, Foundrymen, and all others engaged in the 
industrial arts, to contribute articles giving results of their practi- 
cal experience, and to make this Journal a means of interchange of 
thought and experience. 

Address all communications to 

THE INDICATOR, 

Indianapolis, Ind. 



